Information about Teatro-Circo Apolo has been kindly provided by Pedro Esteban García, drawn from his book El Teatro-Circo Apolo de El Algar, published by the Comisión Gestora para el Teatro-Circo Apolo, part of the Asociación de Vecinos de El Algar, with the collaboration of the Plataforma Socio Cultural Alborada.
The architect
Pedro Cerdán Martínez (Torre Pacheco, 1862 – Murcia, 1947) is one of the most notable figures in the region's architecture from the late 19th century to the mid-20th century.
The son of a colonial goods merchant from Torre Pacheco, he studied architecture in Madrid against his father's wishes, who wanted him to continue the family business. He settled permanently in Murcia, where he practised throughout his career and was appointed Provincial Architect in 1934.
Among his most important works are the Casa del Piñón (1895, now La Unión's town hall), the Liceo Obrero in La Unión, the renovation of the Casino de Murcia (1902), the Verónicas Market (Murcia, 1910), the Casa Servet, or Clock House, in San Pedro del Pinatar (1899), and the building that now houses the Museo Modernista of Caja Mediterráneo in Novelda (1903).
In both public and private commissions, Cerdán developed an eclectic style blending classicist and modernist influences — a career summed up, on the 150th anniversary of his birth, around three themes: the remodelling of the city of Murcia, a constant search for architectural creativity suited to the demands of the time, and his advocacy for the architecture profession.
General features of the building
The plans were drawn up by Pedro Cerdán Martínez in 1904, and are considered by experts to have a distinctly "pre-rationalist" style, given the simplicity of its exterior façades, while the interior is modernist, with more lavish detail around the stage and the proscenium boxes.
The building's exterior reflects its internal volumes: a single-storey lobby topped with a flat roof; a circular main hall topped by a dome and lantern; a stage house with a pitched roof; and auxiliary facilities across two floors.
From the lobby, after a perimeter corridor, visitors reach the central hall: a circular floor designed to serve both as a circus ring and as a seating area. Above the hall sits a large dome topped by a blind lantern, supported by a metal structure cast in the workshops of La Maquinista de Levante in La Unión, covered with flat "Alicante-style" tiles, with the lantern finished in scale-like zinc plates.
On either side of the proscenium boxes, double columns — more ornamental than structural — depict, at mid-height, the head of a young woman with flowing hair, in a clearly modernist style: representing Thalia, the muse of comedy.
On theatre-circuses
According to a study by Genís Matabosch and Eximenis on the history of the theatre-circus in Spain (Revista La Factoría, 2009), sixty such buildings were constructed in Spain during the last decades of the 19th century and the early 20th century. Only four have survived into the 21st century: Albacete, Murcia, Orihuela and El Algar — and only the one in Albacete remains fully operational, having preserved its dual use as both theatre and circus through its restoration.
"A Teatro Circo as a modern institution and a building intended for every kind of performance; it must serve for theatrical productions of all genres, such as comedy, drama, zarzuela, and so on. And, at the same time, allow for the demonstration, in other kinds of events, of whatever skills, feats of dexterity, or displays of wit or strength every race has invented across the different eras of history…"
So begins the project report that Pedro Cerdán Martínez wrote in 1904, noting the singular nature of the commission: "…and worthy of praise is the effort represented by building a Teatro-Circo in El Algar, driven by the private initiative of a handful of residents of this town, who undertook it with no thought of profit, concerned only with the progress and culture of their fellow citizens."
