The Cinema Batalha is a cinema and concert venue in Porto

Porto

Porto , also known as Oporto in English, is the second largest city in Portugal and one of the major urban areas in the Iberian Peninsula. Its administrative limits include a population of 237,559 inhabitants distributed within 15 civil parishes...

, Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

. Originally the High Life Cinema, it was transformed in the current structure by architect Artur Andrade and inaugurated on 3 June 1947. After many years of great success, the building and the cinema started losing customers due to the growing popularity video rental services (in the 1980s) and the mushrooming of malls with multiplex theaters (in the 1990s).

Today the building has been re-opened as a cultural and concert venue. The reconstruction work has been impressive and maintained all the original Art-Deco style. Together with the Coliseu do Porto

Coliseu do Porto

The Coliseu do Porto is a theatre in Porto, Portugal. It is arguably one of the most relevant landmarks of Porto and a prestigious venue for music and cultural events. Together with Batalha Cinema, the Coliseu is a very good example of Portuguese Streamline Moderne and Art Deco in the city of Porto...

, another concert venue, the Cinema Batalha is one of the more impressive examples of Art-Deco in Porto and Portugal. Its character cannot be better summarized than in the words of Sarah Waite that uploaded the photo that granted the Batalha the entry in the 1,000,000 places on Earth website :

Technical details and support facilities

The Cinema Batalha has the following features:
1st and 2nd stalls, the dress circle, the boxes, upper circle and the reserved and general gallery

• Two auditoriums (one with 950 seated places - stalls (346), dress circle (222) and upper circle (382)) and another for 135 people;
• Two bars and a restaurant with terrasse - a good suggestion for tourists that wish to take a look at the design of the building is to "sneak a peek inside the cinema by grabbing a cheap buffet meal on the top floor at Restaurante Batalha"