Imagined and projected just ten years from the Jura of the Constitution, the Teatro Solís has since been a witness and protagonist of the history of the country. Located in a hinged Montevidean space between the old and the new city, today we find on your left the building of the Presidency of the Republic, inserted in a gastronomic, cultural and artistic circuit of the city. Opened in 1856 after the so-called Big War as an Anonymous Society, in 1937 it was bought by the Intendencia de Montevideo becoming a public theater, thus inaugurating the first public cultural policies at the service of the public.

Relations between culture, art and state have been as conflicting as they are creative throughout history in the various societies; In the case of Uruguay, the performing arts have been part of the daily life of the inhabitants since the beginning of their independence.1 Spaces dedicated to the creation, reflection, production and circulation of cultural goods in Uruguay have had a prominent place in the construction of national identity.

The building – material and symbolic – that today constitutes the Historical Heritage of Uruguay, is the result of concerns as remote as the creation of the State itself in 1830. A weak state, where public actors were also involved in private enterprises. In other words, the men who had political responsibilities in the new State were also those who promoted the commercial and stock market development of the country: we find them both in civil institutions (daily, scientific and cultural societies), in business ventures (agro and trade fundamentally), and in the Executive and Legislative branch of the Republic.

Source: Solis Theater