# Teatro Solis opens in Montevideo (25 August 1856)

URL: https://allhistories.com/uruguay/timeline/1856-teatro-solis-opens-in-montevideo
Location: Montevideo, Uruguay
Themes: main-event

On 25 August 1856 the Teatro Solis was inaugurated in Montevideo with a performance of Verdi's opera Ernani. The opening coincided with the anniversary of the 1825 declaration of independence. It was named for the navigator Juan Diaz de Solis, who reached the Rio de la Plata in 1516, and is today the country's leading theatre. Planning began in 1840, when the Italian architect Carlo Zucchi produced a design, but its cost proved too high. Work began in 1842 and stopped during the Great Siege. Francisco Javier de Garmendia then adapted the plans, and construction resumed after the war. A major reconstruction ran from 1998 to 2004. The Solis gave the capital a stage worthy of its growing European population and became the centre of its musical and theatrical life. The first Uruguayan national opera, La Parisina, premiered there in 1878. Its building next to Plaza Independencia remains a symbol of Montevideo's cultural ambitions.

## Why it matters
It gave Montevideo its main stage and became the heart of the country's performing arts.

Ruler at the Time: [Gabriel Antonio Pereira (1856–1860)](https://allhistories.com/uruguay/rulers/gabriel-antonio-pereira-second-term)

## Sources
- [Solís Theatre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sol%C3%ADs_Theatre)
- [operala.org](https://operala.org/en/?p=18144)
- [Timeline of Montevideo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Montevideo)