Colón Theatre

In front of you is the Colón Theatre, Colombia's national theatre. Its stone façade, sober and elegant, barely hints at the gilded opera house hidden behind it.

1On the site of old playhouses

The Coliseo Ramírez and the Teatro Maldonado, pioneering stages in the city, once stood on this plot. The foundation stone of the new theatre was laid on 5 October 1885. The design was by the Italian architect Pietro Cantini, who was also working on the Capitol, and the decoration was entrusted to the Swiss Luigi Ramelli. It opened on 12 October 1892, the fourth centenary of Columbus's arrival in the Americas, hence its name.

2Gatti's curtain

Its great treasure is the drop curtain, painted in Florence by Annibale Gatti and hung in 1891. It is almost nine metres high. President Rafael Núñez wanted opera characters, and Gatti painted them, but he added something unexpected: groups of peasants in ruanas and hats gazing curiously at the world of the theatre.

On 24 November 2016, the final peace agreement between the Colombian government and the FARC was signed in this theatre.

The main auditorium now has around 785 seats. Another of its spaces saw the birth of the National School of Dramatic Art, which trained the country's first generation of professional actors.

3What to look for

• The dressed-stone façade, in the Tuscan Doric order, with three tiers and two cornices.
• The Palacio de San Carlos, directly opposite, home of the Foreign Ministry.
• Gatti's curtain, if you attend a performance or a guided tour.