Bari, restoration completed The Kursaal Santalucia reopens

theater

twelve o’clock, June 21, 2021 – 09:02

Two years ago the start of the renovation work costing the Region 6.9 million. Today the presentation with the authorities and the reopening. Guided tours by appointment

of Carlo Testa

The restored Kursaal

After 20 months of restoration work, the Kursaal Santalucia theater, an example of Italian Liberty, closed for a decade, is returned to the city of Bari. The conservative restoration, carried out by Cobar Spa of Altamura in collaboration with the Archaeological, Fine Arts and Landscape Superintendence of Bari, was financed by the Puglia Region with 6.9 million euros. The presentation event of the restored theater coincided with the summer solstice and, for this reason, it was called the solstice of culture, a symbolic event of restart and rebirth of culture in Puglia after the pandemic says the Region.
For the restoration of the Kursaal theater, designed in 1927 by the engineer Santalucia and acquired to the heritage of the Puglia Region in 2012 by exercising the right of pre-emption, the bureaucratic, administrative and judicial procedures began in 2015 and ended in 2018 with the tender for the design. The works then began in August 2019 and now, after less than two years, they are completed. With the start of the 2021-2022 artistic season, the structure will become the home of arts and sounds and together with the other cultural containers returned to the city in recent years, the Petruzzelli, Margherita and Piccinni theaters, completes the so-called mile of theaters of Bari, a unicum on a national and international level. On the ground floor and first floor, the Kursaal theater will once again host cinema-theater events in the 400-seat auditorium with stage and stalls equipped with the most modern technological systems and seats that can be dismantled automatically. On the second floor, the Sala Giuseppina houses the restored frescoes and stuccos by the Prayer brothers. On the third floor, the roof-garden space has been transformed into the Sala Cielo, designed by the artist Alfredo Pirri and destined to become an exhibition space, with a floor in cracked mirror slabs, a steel and Etfe roof, window frames with the insertion of feathers and windows overlooking the sea .

shadow carousel

The restored Kursaal

Guided tours

The guided visits to the construction site, carried out in collaboration with the FAI delegation for the Italian Environment Fund of Bari and the Order of Architects, Planners, Landscape Architects and Conservators of the Province of Bari and thanks to the availability of the grouping of contractors led by COBAR SpA of Altamura, are scheduled from 19.00 to 23.00 every 30 minutes and a maximum of 20 people can participate at a time in compliance with the anti-COVID rules (reservations starting from 17.00 on Friday 18 June on https://www.eventbrite.it/ o / Regione-Puglia-33702442155 and on www.regione.puglia.it). Visitors are encouraged to bring a “family photo” taken in the Kursaal in the past if they have one.
Furthermore, inside the Kursaal there will be a series of site specific installations specially designed by Maestro Franco Dell’Erba, one of the most significant exponents of Italian contemporary art. Finally, outside the Kursaal Santalucia, a sound box will be positioned, offered by the Apulian company of Paulicelli lights, made in 2019 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the company that brings the beauty and magic of the lights in Italy and in the world. as an identity trait of the Apulian culture.

June 21, 2021 | 09:02

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