Teatro Municipal of Caracas

The building was designed by Esteban Ricard, a French architect who left Venezuela before the project was completed.

The building incorporates structural ironwork imported from Great Britain, as there was no domestic production at the time.

[1] In 1896, President Joaquín Crespo commemorated General José Tadeo Monagas by erecting a statute of him in front of the theatre in a move for political unity.

It is one of the oldest opera houses in South America; it opened on January 4, 1881, with Italian composer Errico Petrella's 1858 opera Jone, which was revived for the centennial of the theatre in 1981 with noted Argentine soprano Adelaida Negri in the title role.

[4] but it is no longer the city's main opera house since the Teresa Carreño Cultural Complex opened in the 1980s.