# Afonso Henriques Theatre

The Afonso Henriques Theatre (or Dom Afonso Henriques Theatre; Portuguese: Teatro Dom Afonso Henriques), was the main entertainment center of Guimarães from 1853 until its replacement by the Jordão Theatre in the late 1930s.
Over its 90-plus years, the Afonso Henriques Theatre was the central venue for entertainment in Guimarães, hosting a wide variety of performances that fulfilled the cultural needs of the city. It remained the focal point for the city's events, including festivities and important community gatherings, until its successor was constructed in 1937. Its performances and shows influenced the development of the surrounding area, mainly by partly aiding the construction of the Santos Passos Church.

## Description

The building's facade was symmetrical and featured three stories. The ground floor consisted of a series of rectangular doorways, seven in total, each with a simple stone frame. The central doorway was more prominent as it featured a double-stone frame with a curved top.
On the first floor, the central section had a square window surrounded by a strip of granite. Flanking this central section were three pairs of windows, each set within a granite frame. On top of them were small circular windows with a granite frame which connected with the square windows below.
The second floor mirrored the first in its window arrangement, with rectangular windows above each of the lower floors. The central section had a balcony with an iron railing, supported by corbels and accessed by a door with a decorative stone frame. The outermost windows on this floor also featured iron railings and granite balconies. The roof was paved with roof tiles and it was separated from the facade by a cornice with two stone urns at its extremities. The central part was shaped like a semi-circle and it had a stone coat of arms under it.
In its interior the theatre had two closed cabinets, 38 boxes in three levels, 176 audience seats and 60 gallery seats.

## History
### Predecessors

Before the construction of the theatre, the Count of Vila Pouca Theatre was located at the Campo da Feira. Shows and plays were performed regularly at this theatre to aid the construction efforts of the Santos Passos Church while under construction.
The Count of Vila Pouca Theatre was burnt down on the night of 18 January 1841, leaving Guimarães without a permanent theatre. Even during its active years, this theatre was never meant to serve the 7,000 people which lived in the city at the time and, since 1836, the progressive forces of Guimarães demanded the creation of a project to construct a theatre which could accommodate the city's needs.

### Construction and inauguration

In 1853, construction of a new theatre started at the Campo da Feira after 12 years without a permanent theatre in the city. During its construction on 5 July 1854, five people died after an accident involving the collapse of the scaffolding. On 31 May 1855, it was reported the construction of the theatre was being accelerated so its inauguration could occur on the night of the succession of King Pedro V.
This theatre was inaugurated with a masquerade ball on 12 August 1855, and was baptized with the name of Portugal's first king, Afonso Henriques, making official the name Theatro Dom Affonso Henriques, later modified due to various orthographic reforms.

### Active years

The theatre, similar to its predecessor, also contributed to the completion of the Santos Passos Church by donating funds received from plays and magic lantern slide shows. On 22 April 1863, the play "O Veterano Mateus", the song "O Sebastianista", and the comedy "A Actriz" were played exclusively to raise money for the construction of the church's bell towers. Many were in attendance and the city's music played outside the theatre.
The first 10 years of activity of the Afonso Henriques Theatre were very busy, with over 220 theatrical performances by national theatre companies. Compared with other two big cities at the time, Coimbra and Aveiro, Guimarães was the city, between these three, which welcomed the most professional theatre companies to its theatres. This was unexpected as both Coimbra and Aveiro had multiple theatrical locations, while Guimarães only had the Afonso Henriques Theatre.
On 26 February 1866, the Artistic Association of Guimarães was installed at the Afonso Henriques Theatre and remained there until their headquarters were transferred to the Gil Vicente Theatre a few decades later.
Periodic inspections were regularly conducted at the theatre, as documented in a logbook which recorded events from 2 August 1856 to 30 June 1875. This logbook revealed the theatre was frequently rented for a variety of events, including theatrical shows, masquerade balls, and both dramatic and comedic plays. It also revealed the number of events held decreased throughout the years.
By order of the administrative authority, the theatre was inspected on 11 April 1888, with nothing unusual to report. The theatre was the gathering place of the NFC and spectators of the Pregão, one of the festivities of the Nicolinas, once it was concluded. The Afonso Henriques Theatre was also the place where students gathered on 21 November 1895 to revive the Nicolinas festivities after decades of non-existence.
In Guimarães, the first permanent cinematographic screening room was opened in March 1909, on the premises of the theatre. Later, in January 1912, the company which owned the cinematic equipment and screening room at the Gil Vicente Theatre relocated to the theatre, evolving in 1914 to the "Cinema High-Life". In November 1919, businessman Luís do Souto transformed the old theatre into a fully operational cinema, named "Vimaranes-Cine", ignoring the already unfavorable conditions present at the time.

### Closure, demolition, and aftermath

On 6 May 1933, the Diário do Governo published decree n°22:498. This decree, made by the Ministry of Internal Administration, granted authorization to the Câmara municipal of Guimarães to expropriate the Afonso Henrique Theatre, to extend the S. Dâmaso Street to the Campo da Feira. On 18 February 1936, the Câmara Municipal of Guimarães met in extraordinary session to create a solution to the lack of a proper theatre in the city. The original idea was to keep the theatre standing since the street approved in the 1933 decree was not built. No solution to the problem emerged from this meeting, and rumors soon began to circulate about the reconstruction of the old theatre being stuck. The decision to close the theatre was also in part to its deteriorating condition dating back to 1919, when it was described:
   Guimarães has a theatre like all the lands of this world, a theatre named after Afonso Henriques.
   However, this one offers no guarantees against disaster. Apart from the fact that it has nothing, absolutely nothing, that should be required in a theatre, it currently has the serious inconvenience of not having a single wooden plank that hasn't shown signs of old age.
   The whole place is rotten. One day it'll all fall down and poor of those who are having a party inside when that happens.
The theatre ceased activities and was closed in 1936, however, in September of the same year, it was temporarily repurposed to house families whose homes were going to be demolished on a project to restore the area in and around the Guimarães Castle and the Paço dos Duques, and could not afford to buy a new one. After many complaints the families were promised by the city council to be moved to a different location before the start of the Gualterianas of 1938.
On 29 July 1938, it was announced at the O Comércio de Guimarães that the theatre had become a "shameful inn", and would be indefinitely closed after the relocation of said families. In August of the same year, after almost two years of serving as a shelter to these families, the theatre permanently closed, and plans to reconstruct it were abandoned as the construction of its announced successor, the Jordão Theatre, had already begun in February 1937.
The theatre was destroyed sometime between 1943 and 1949, with its last appearance in a photograph in 1943. By 1949, three houses had already been built on the site, which were later demolished in early 1961, alongside many other buildings, including the São Dâmaso Church, on a project to widen the São Dâmaso Boulevard. The location of the theatre is currently occupied by a street and garden.