Barcelona City Council plans to reopen the Capitol Theatre in 2028 with a renewed Rambla

The Capitol could reopen its doors in early 2028. The City Council favours unified public management. A transformed Rambla and new spaces for popular culture are envisaged. Discover the details and challenges of the undertaking.

Barcelona City Council has confirmed its aim of reopening the iconic Capitol in early 2028, coinciding with the completion of the Rambla's renovation. This was explained by Xavier Marcè, Councillor for Culture, who emphasised that the undertaking forms part of the process of reclaiming the Rambla and its cultural spaces.

Marcè stressed that the reopening of the Capitol would bring a new vision for the area, bringing closer the dream of transforming the Rambla into a more attractive, cultural space for the city. The project aims to restore the cultural prominence of central Barcelona and prevent these facilities from falling into the hands of mass tourism.

The councillor pointed out that the undertaking requires complex economic and urban planning arrangements, similar to those being applied at the Capitol. According to Marcè, initiatives of this kind will be essential in future to reclaim cultural spaces and guarantee their public use. He also announced that the theatre's management would be awarded through a public tender and would be unified, ruling out any fragmentation in the administration of the space.

In parallel, the City Council is working to respond to requests from Barcelona's geganters, the groups that carry the festival giants. It is considering providing a space near the City Hall itself where the city's most representative giants could be displayed, allowing people to visit and learn about them. Marcè also revealed that the creation of a second Casa dels Entremesos was being considered, as the current one is at capacity. This new space would help ease congestion in the centre and offer workshops and activities to promote awareness of popular culture.

The reopening of the Capitol and the transformation of the Rambla are part of a broader strategy to revitalise Barcelona's cultural heart and respond to the needs of the city's traditional groups.