Teatro Nazionale

In the heart of Florence, between Dante’s house and Piazza della Signoria, the Teatro Nazionale comes back to life after more than forty years of abandonment. A historic Italian-style theatre where the mask of Stenterello made its debut, the theatre is being reborn thanks to an ambitious restoration project.

Alongside the preservation of tradition, a strong drive for innovation takes center stage: the auditorium will be equipped with cutting-edge technologies, including a large scenic LED wall, a Dolby Atmos sound system (the first in Europe in a theatre of this kind), and an advanced LED lighting system capable of creating striking visual effects, such as a starry sky above the stalls.

The history of the Teatro Nazionale is rich and complex: originally founded as a reformatory in the seventeenth century, it became one of the main venues for popular Florentine theatre in the eighteenth century, earning the title “Nazionale” during the period when Florence was the capital of Italy. In the twentieth century it also served as a cinema, until its closure in the 1980s.

Today, the new Teatro Nazionale presents itself as a multifunctional cultural hub: in addition to a theatre auditorium with approximately 300 seats, it will host a bookshop-café with a jazz room, spaces for events and talks, a kitchen for dinner shows, and a retractable roof offering views over the city’s monuments.