They say that cinema is dead. For years, more and more voices have been raised against gradual abandonment of rooms which not so long ago were crowded at every premiere in favor of streaming platforms and more products … shorter, lighter, more immediate. Seville has not remained immune to this trend and, although many remain faithful to the rite of enjoy movies on the big screenWith all that this entails, the options are diminishing without anyone being able to do anything about it in the Seville capital.
Of the large cinemas currently open – Nervión, Lagoh, Los Arcos and Plaza de Armas, since the one in Seville East closed last month – only the two unique classic rooms which continue with the blinds raised: the cinema alley on Marqués de Paradas Street and the Cervantes in the Love of God. The rest, a multitude of more or less large places which enjoyed great popularity over the last century, closed one after the other and were transformed into different businesses.
This is what happened this week in the information provided by ABC on the case of memories. Florida Cinema on Menéndez Pelayo Street. The project to transform the building in which the famous 1940s cinema was located into a hotel was approved by Heritage thirty years after its closure in 1995. The owners of the property sold it in 2018. This, with the interior demolished – the facade is protected – has already undergone an unsuccessful attempt to transform it into a hotel establishment in 2019, although this opportunity seems to be the definitive one.
The Alameda cinema, shortly before its closure
It is not the only building of this type that enters the tertiary sector. In fact, the last traditional room which said goodbye to the seventh art, the Alameda Cinemaclosed its doors in 2019, not only due to its very low-key ticket sales activities, but also due to the intention of some businessmen to transform it into a hotel. This main local multiplex, the second in the city of Seville, born in 1977 with fourteen hours of uninterrupted cinema per day, was sold in 2019 for the construction of a four-star hotel instead. In fact, after several years of hiatus, the demolition of the building began this year to construct the aforementioned establishment which will be called Hotel Alameda.
Buildings like the Llórens cinema or the Imperial are waiting for a new life, while the Alameda or the Florida will soon be hotels
THE golden age of these cinemasduring the last decades of the Franco regime and until the discovery, caused a crowd of rooms in the center of Seville in such a way that today we would find it hard to believe in decades of the 60s, 70s and even 80s. This business model has been an extremely successful attraction and one of the favorite leisure projects of Sevillians. However, its gradual closure with the rise of television, video clubs and other forms of entertainment left many orphan buildings which had to be reconverted, like the two cases already mentioned.
The Llórens cinema, with its iconic original sign
THE supermarkets and large chain stores They were one of the destinations that most proliferated among these buildings in which so many stories were projected. This is the case, for example, of Regina Cinema. Opened in 1960 with no less than 1,100 seats – it became the hall with the largest capacity in the Seville capital – today it is an El Jamón supermarket located on Jerónimo Hernández street. For his part, the Cinema Villasisborn in 1966 and demolished eleven years later, today serves as a Decathlon establishment. He Andalusian cinemain the Ronda de Capuchinos, which hosted wrestling and Greco-Roman wrestling shows in summer until its disappearance in the early 1970s, is now a Lidl.
The old Pathé cinema on rue Cuna
He Llorens Cinemawhich dates from 1915, was the first to abandon silent cinema in 1930 with the screening of “White Shadows”. Unamuno, Ortega y Gasset or Zamacois had already been there. It closed its doors in 1982 and It was converted into a games room, which also closed and it was abandoned to the point that its sign fell in 2023. Even if it wanted to resume its activity as a performance hall, it remains closed for the moment. In the same street, the Imperial Cinemawhich began its journey at the dawn of the last century as a theater and then combined dramaturgical activity with cinema until limiting itself solely to the theatrical aspect in the nineties. After its closure in 2006, it reopened as the headquarters of the Beta library, then Verbo librarywhile retaining the entire interior structure of the performance hall. He lowered the blinds last year.
Los Remedios cinema, current bingo hall on Asunción Street
He Pathé Cinemaopened in 1925 on Calle Cuna, was the second theater to show sound films. After its closure in the 1980s, this building, designed by Juan Talavera Heredia, was a party hall, a nightclub and an artistic factory. After the renovation which gave it its current appearance, it became the Quintero Theater in 2006 and has currently regained its original name to establish itself as Pathé Theaternever again as a cinema. It is also not that of the very young district of Los Remedios, which opened its business in 1958 with the help of Benito Villamarín. Los Remedios Cinema. The one on Asunción Street, next to the Plaza de Cuba, has become the hall with the largest capacity in Seville, with 1,400 seats. In 1984 it closed and became the Piruetas nightclub, later transformed into the current one bingo Los Remedios.
And the same goes for the rest of the rooms that once populated a good part of the city. There are fewer and fewer places for the most cinephiles, and almost all the spaces that once hosted hundreds of screenings have now acquired uses of all kindsif they are lucky and have not fallen into ostracism. As long as there are films and people who go to see them, whether at Avenida, Cervantes or any other theater in Seville, cinema will continue to live.
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