Teatro Circo Murcia

The Teatro Circo in Murcia offers a wide range of shows and performances

Teatro Circo Murcia Address and Ticketing details
Address Calle Enrique Villar, Murcia

Click for map, Calle Enrique Villar

Box office; 968 273  420, during box office opening times.
C/ Enrique Villar, 11, Murcia
Tuesday to Friday, 10.30 to 13.30 and 17.30 to 20.30, and one hour before each show.

Purchases by credit card through www.ticketmaster.es, www.cajamurcia.es 24 hours a day.

Discounts are available for group bookings. For details, contact tcm@ayto-murcia.es

Disabled visitors: Please note, there are special facilities available for wheelchairs, so please ask at the time of booking for arrangements to be made in advance.

Parking: The nearest underground parking facility is in the university parking, in the Plaza Unversidad S/n.
A special discount is offered to those attending the theatre productions, the first 45 minutes in the car park being free of charge. In order to obtain the discount, please present tickets to the parking staff within the parking facility, and 45 minutes will be deducted from the parking charge.

A little history

The Teatro Circo Murcia was built by Justo Millán in the style of the celebrated “ theatre-circuses” which spread across Europe from Paris at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. Built as a round theatre, spectators could watch the spectaculars from a number of angles, giving great flexibility in the type of spectaculars it could host.

This same architect would also be responsible for the reform of the Teatro Romea when it burnt down in 1899, and built several emblematic buildings within the Capital, including the Plaza de Toros, the provincial hospital and the San José ecclesiastical school.

The theatre was built in the centrally situated  calle Caravija (today known as , Enrique Villar), and the Teatro Circo de Murcia was inaugurated on the 5th November in 1892. The decorated roof, scenery and backdrops were the work of Sanmiguel. 

The theatre took its name from its owner, Enrique Villar, the same businessman who built the Plaza de Toros, and was originally named the Teatro Circo Villar. The inaugural performance featured the equestrian company of Gil Vicente Alegría. During the last years of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, the theatre was in competition with the Romea theatre, one a private enterprise , the other public, competing to outdo each other by showing the same works, but with different  theatrical companies and different sets.

Throughout its history the theatre has undergone various reforms, its original structure permitting not only theatrical productions, but also equestrian displays, cinema, boxing matches, displays of wild animals, all manner of spectaculars, even being converted into a giant swimming pool for one particular event.

Originally the theatre was lit with gas lighting, but as the use of electricity spread, the theatre was converted to electric and four external lamps installed to light the access.

In 1908 the theatre was converted to incorporate the latest technology: cinema, a popular form of entertainment which it continued to show until the 1980’s.

The theatre closed in 1984, but in 2003 the Town Hall of Murcia began the processes to recover it and it re-opened at the end of 2011, under the ownership of the Town Hall.