Passeig de Pere III was created in 1891 and is home to a number of high-quality Catalan Art Nouveau and Noucentista buildings. The Kursaal is a building set back from the street line and with its main façade opening onto an atrium. It has a ground floor and four upper floors, with a unitary and symmetrical composition. The atrium is defined by a single-storey perimeter porch, supported on pairs of columns with Ionic capitals and crowned by a balustrade. Access is through a classical-style grille with pillars topped by iron and glass street lamps. The façade has a central section with three vertical axes of windows, separated only by the sills. Those on the first and second floors are square and those on the third floor are semicircular arches. In the centre, crowning the building, is a tower centred on a columnar window and topped with a triangular pediment. The whole building is part of the Noucentista (1900-1914) movement of the time, in its classicist monumentalist aspect. Currently having been restored (2007) by the architects Joan Forgas and Víctor Argentí, it is the performing arts centre of Manresa, hosting theatre and concerts. The interior has been completely modified. Newspaper report on 21/02/2007 (El Periódico): Manresa was all dressed up last night for the inauguration of the emblematic Kursaal theatre. After 19 years of being closed, the theatre raised the curtain once again to offer a show prepared for the occasion, which brought it back to cultural life. The Minister of Culture, Joan Manuel Tresserras, attended the inauguration of the theatre, which, in the words of the mayor of the municipality, Josep Camprubí (PSC), should reinforce Manresa as the ‘cultural capital of central Catalonia’. INAGURATED IN 1927 The image of the theatre with the spotlights on and the stalls of the main auditorium full was the culmination of a long process of 11 years to refurbish the Kursaal, one of the star projects of the municipal tripartite. The theatre, on the central Passeig de Pere III, was first opened in 1927 and now, being located next to the Casino, a building that has been converted into a library and civic centre, it forms part of an enclave with a special cultural content. After a period of splendour, the theatre was closed in 1988 due to its dilapidation. “La revista Loco, boig musical Hall, Mary Sampere i la companyia d'El Molino” were the last performances. In 1995, a group of citizens set out to make Manresa a theatre-going town again and the association El Galliner was set up. Its first action was to sell 800 tickets for the hypothetical day the Kursaal would be reopened. The buyers were among the audience today at the double premiere - theatre and show - or will be attending the performances this week. 11.5 MILLION EUROS Today, the festival of Light in Manresa, the theatre will open its doors to the public so that they can see the restoration, which has cost 11.5 million euros financed by the town council and with subsidies from the regional government and the provincial council. The original façade has been preserved and inside there are now two auditoriums, one with 803 seats, including stalls and an amphitheatre, and the other with 200. and large-format orchestras’. Until now, most of the cultural programme was put on at the Conservatory Theatre, where El Galliner has made the most of its limited stage space. This association will be in charge of the Kursaal programme, and has already arranged performances by Lluís Llach, Joan Manuel Serrat, Manolo Escobar and theatre and dance premieres. The venue is managed by a municipal public company.