On 31 October 1918, the unification of Banat and Romania was agreed upon in the Kronprinz Rudolf restaurant, located on the ground floor, by a group led by Aurel Cosma.

From 1761, plays took place at the Serbian magistrate's headquarters, on today's Gheorghe Lazăr Avenue (where the Nikolaus Lenau High School now stands), in a theatre run by Joseph Hasenhut.

[4] The 1852 structure proved to be too small to continue hosting the theatre, so talks about constructing a new building started.

[6][12] From 1873, Ferdinand Fellner the Elder's son of the same name partnered with Hermann Helmer, and their firm oversaw the construction by Színház-, Hotel- és Vigadóépítő Rt (Theatres, Hotels and Entertainment Venues Builder Co.), which was completed in 1875.

[14] The building was formally opened on 22 September 1875, and the first play staged was a work by the leading Hungarian dramatist Ede Szigligeti.

At the building's opening the statues were missing;[8] it is believed that they were sold for 200 florins to Mathias Stein, who have used them to decorate his house in the Elisabetin district,[8][16] although two of them appear in their niches in photographs dating from 1891 and later.

Interior furniture was refurbished by carpenter Ferenc Gungl, the main hall was gilded by Jenő Sprang, and sculptures were repaired by Alajos Heine.

[5] The name "Palace of Culture" dates back to the 1930s when the building housed the Banat Museum (between 1937 and 1951),[13] the Academy of Fine Arts and the Banat–Crișana Social Institute, as well as the theatre.

This was again entrusted to Duiliu Marcu, who raised the façade by placing a travertine-clad "triumphal arch" around the entrance and the balcony on the first floor.

[27] In the 1970s, on the corner between Mărășești and Victor Vlad Delamarina streets, a building in the modern post-war style was built following a project by architect Tiberiu Selegean, which housed the theatre's warehouses.

[28]: 234  In 2003 the sides of the main façade regained their initial appearance[8][23] in a restoration project managed by architect Marcela Titz.

[30][31] The building also houses an urban planning workshop, the city's tourism information center and various shops.

[27] The ceiling was decorated with four paintings each inscribed in a circle, made by Heinrich Schwemminger of Vienna, representing the muses Melpomene, Thalia, Eutherpe and Terpsichora.

The auditorium was enlarged by recovering the space of the 23 rooms that had belonged to the Ferdinand Hotel, bringing the number of seats to 982.

The interior of the theatre was completely rebuilt in neo-Romanian eclectic style, with neo-Byzantine and Art Deco ornaments.

[5][7] The ceiling was decorated with frescoes made in 1926[28]: 231  by Theodor Kiriakoff-Suruceanu who reproduced characters from the history and fairy tales of the Romanian people.

The stage is 23 × 13 m.[21] An Ovidius quote is displayed on the central lodge: Ars ultimam mores animumque effingere poset, pulchrior in terris nulla tabella foret.

[38][39] There is debate as to whether the facade should be returned to its original form; revolutionaries oppose it because a symbol of the Romanian Revolution would be damaged.