The Municipal Theatre rises majestically in front of Palazzo San Giorgio, positioned between Corso Garibaldi to the west, Via Cattolica dei Greci to the south, Via del Torrione to the east, and Via Osanna to the north, in the place where the Town Hall stood before the earthquake of 1908.

The history of the Reggio theatre has its roots in the 19th century, when the city of Reggio, having become the capital of “Calabria Ultra Prima,” was provided with new structures, among which the Royal Bourbon Theatre, inaugurated on 30 May 1818, the name day of the King.

The earthquake of 1908 caused serious damage to the theatre, as it did throughout the city, and it was therefore necessary to demolish it. Its reconstruction began in 1921 based on the design by engineers De Simone and Laviny, and it was made possible thanks to the then minister Giuseppe De Nava and the mayor of the time Giuseppe Valentino, described as “the Mayor of the Reconstruction.”

The theatre was inaugurated in 1931 and dedicated to the memory of the well-known musician Francesco Cilea, native of Palmi. Subsequently, in the post-war period, it underwent an expansion and improvements that made it even more beautiful and functional. The new structure was inaugurated in February 1964 with the staging of the opera Il trovatore by Giuseppe Verdi.

Since then, for about two decades, it hosted on its stage artists of national and international fame until 1985, when it was declared unfit for use, and only after eighteen years, in 2013, did it reopen its doors to the public to carry forward its illustrious artistic and cultural tradition.

A long history studded with some of the greatest names in theatre, dance, and above all opera, including the divine Maria Callas and the legendary Luciano Pavarotti.

The Theatre displays elements of classical architecture on the exterior, precisely at the request of Mayor Giuseppe Valentino, who wanted a reference to the architectural forms of the ancient Magna Graecia city. A wide stairway, on the side facing Corso Garibaldi, leads to a portico that introduces the entrance and the sumptuous foyer.

Inside, welcoming visitors is a majestic horseshoe-shaped hall, in nineteenth-century style, with three tiers of boxes, a gallery, and a large royal box in the central part. The theatre enchants with its refined architecture and sumptuous furnishings and, with its 1,500 seats, is the largest in all of Calabria.

The northern wing of the Cilea Theatre houses the prestigious Civic Art Gallery of Reggio, guardian of artworks of inestimable value by renowned artists such as Mattia Preti, Luca Giordano, Pietro Bernini, Antonello da Messina, Alonso Rodriguez (a pupil of Caravaggio), Guttuso, and many others.