The Teatro Giuseppe Garibaldi is the main theatre of Lucera and stands inside Palazzo Mozzagrugno, on Corso Garibaldi. The idea took shape in 1818, when the mayor Onofrio Bonghi made himself the spokesman of the citizens' wish to have a theatre. In 1826 the town council bought Palazzo Mozzagrugno to make it the town hall, and during the works it was decided to build the auditorium there: the design was entrusted to the engineer Luigi Oberty. The theatre, at first dedicated to Maria Teresa Isabella of Bourbon, was opened on 7 June 1838 with Donizetti's «Lucia di Lammermoor».
What to see
It is an Italian-style theatre: the auditorium has a horseshoe shape, the boxes are separate from one another and divided in height into tiers, and the stage is deep. The official plan gives a capacity of 697 seats, with thirty-eight boxes with refined furnishings, mirrors, stuccoes and parapets of red velvet, and above them the gallery.
In the first years of the twentieth century the theatre was enlarged and restored to a design by the engineer Angelo Messeni, the same man who built in Bari the theatre for his brothers-in-law Antonio and Onofrio Petruzzelli: since then it has been called the miniature twin of the Petruzzelli. Other restorations had taken place in 1841, directed by Achille Cavalli, and then with Filippo Gifuni, who in 1860 finished the façade of the palace.
Visiting
The theatre was abandoned during the wars; the recovery project dates from 1977, and the works ended in 2005, when it was opened again. Since 2006 it has had a drama season. Shows, times and the possibility of a visit should be checked with the town council of Lucera.
Our editors' tip
Since 2017 the season «PrimaVera al Garibaldi», held every year in spring, has been curated by the actor Fabrizio Gifuni with Natalia Di Iorio. Gifuni is tied to Lucera through the origins of his grandfather Gianbattista, the long-serving librarian of the municipal library.
