The Teatro Emperador (English: Emperador Theatre), designed in 1949 by the Madrid architect Manuel de Cárdenas Pastor in collaboration with Gonzalo de Cárdenas Pastor and Francisco J. Sanz and inaugurated in 1951, is an important and emblematic Spanish theater of the capital of León, located in the expansion of the city and protected by the municipal regulations of 1980. The building was used as a cinema and performance hall from its inauguration until 2006, when it was closed to the public. Three years later, in 2009, the theater was acquired by the General State Administration, with the intention of locating in it the National Center for Performing Arts and Historical Music. The project, however, was unsuccessful and the theater remained closed. History Project development The Teatro Emperador was commissioned by Empresa Leonesa de Espectáculos S.A., which at that time monopolized all the cinematographic exhibition and therefore the theatrical representation of the city, to the architects Manuel de Cárdenas Pastor, Gonzalo de Cárdenas Pastor and Francisco J. Sanz Martínez. The first project, presented in December 1946 by Manuel and Gonzalo de Cárdenas, contemplated the occupation of only half of the plot and proposed an exclusively cinematographic function, with a capacity for 1,378 people, 882 in the stalls and 492 in the amphitheater, who had segregated access to their seats, taking the class stratification prevailing at the time to the limit. In 1947, the old project was discarded and a request was submitted for the emptying and support of the entire site occupied by the Emperador, presenting a single plan for the foundations that already affected the entire site. Thus, shortly after, a new project was presented, which included several notorious changes with respect to the previous one of 1946. The new project presented a multipurpose hall, since it contemplated both theatrical performances and cinematographic exhibitions, with a capacity practically the same as the initial one, of 1,367 seats, distributed differently from the initial project, with 670 in the stalls, 264 in the mezzanine, 383 in the amphitheater and 50 in ten boxes. The process ends in December 1949, when a fourth and definitive project is presented, to which is added the signature of the local architect Francisco J. Sanz for the extension of two floors in the tower of the chamfer, thus satisfying the city council, which demanded a design that would provide a greater package and height that would embellish