The Teatro Payret is one of the first theaters in Cuba that is used as cinema since 1930s. Once it was known as "The Cathedral of Spanish Cinema".

In 1875, Catalan Joaquín Payret that had a great interest in performing arts, particularly in theatre, decided to build a new theatre in the busy corner of the Paseo de Martí and the San José street that would be named after his surname. His purpose was to create an alternative to the Teatro Tacón that had captured the hearts of the theatre fans since its inauguration in 1838.

He acquired the land that is occupied by the Teatro Payret, from the state and sold the famous Café Louvre to finance the construction. In 1876, the Teatro Payret began to be built. However, he faced many difficulties. When the walls of the building reached four meters, a hurricane pulled them down. Later, another hurricane demolished half of the building, when the construction was almost finished. Finally, on the scheduled night of the opening, a gas leak from one of the pipes of the lighting system endangered the building seriously.

The Teatro Pay opened its doors in 1877. The income of the initial performance (a piano concert by the notable musician Serafin Ramirez) was granted to the Casa de Beneficencia y Maternidad (House of Maternity and Charity), a charity organization that functioned as asylum to children, delivered by the mothers that for economic reasons or for the dishonor of having made a slip, was unable to take the care of the child. The theatre made a good start with the opera La Favorita by the Italian composer Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti that was much liked by the public.

In 1878, one year after its inauguration, the name of the theatre was changed to Teatro de la Paz (Theatre of Peace), referring to the Pact of Zanjón that was signed after the Ten Years’ War. It was known also as Colisejo Rojo (Red Coliseum) colloquially, because the red color was overwhelming at its inside decoration.

In 1882, the Teatro Payret escaped a serious danger, in that the upper floors collapsed on the lower ones, when the master walls couldn’t yield the accumulation of the water that was the result of the heavy rain that had occluded the drainage pipes. In this unfortunate event three persons died, including Enrique Sagastizabál, the architect that had directed the construction of the theatre and the co-owner of the property, and ten people injured.

This misfortune led Joaquín Payret to fall into financial crisis. He couldn’t pay back the credit to the state that he had used for the reconstruction of the building, so that the property fell into the hands of the public treasury in 1884, whereas the successful businessman Joaquín Payret that once had amassed half a million pesos in less than ten years through commercial activity, fell into gutter, helped for a while by the Society of Natural Charities of Catalonia and died in poverty.

The tragic end of Payret reminds us the curse of Maria del Pino, with whom Payret had a deep conflict, inflicted by love and money. Maria del Pino cursed against the building during its construction period. Maybe because of fear, Payret fulfilled the last will of Maria del Pino. When she died, the funeral carriage with her remains, remained five minutes in front of the theatre.

In 1890, the building was auctioned and first Santiago Pubillones, famous circus entrepreneur, and the next year Dr. Anastasio Saaverio y Barbales acquired the property. The renovated building opened its doors again with performances of Anna Pavlova and Sara Bernhard, among other outstanding artists.

From 1890s to 1910s, the theatre remained in the property of the members of the Saaverio family (the sons of Dr. Anastasio Saaverio y Barbales and Gilbert Pemberton, the husband of Carlota Saaverio).

In 1925, more than 2.000 doctors from various regions of the island met in the hall of the theatre and constituted the Federación Médica de Cuba (Medical Federation of Cuba), electing Dr. Juan Guiteras Gener the first president. Unfortunately, Juan Guiteras died five days after his election.

The hurricane in 1926 destroyed the roof of the building. The same year it passed to the hands of Rodolfo and Roberto Méndez Peñate brothers, the latter being lawyer, politician and colonel of the Liberation Army.

During the struggle against the tyranny of Gerardo Machado, the fifth President of Cuba, the basements of the theatre served as arsenal and hiding place for the insurgents.

In 1935 the Teatro Payret was rented out to José Vercárcel that reopened the theatre as cinema, projecting Spanish movies. In a short time, it became known as the “Cathedral of Spanish Cinema”.

In 1942 the Suseción Falla Gutiérrez, one of the sugar barons in Cuba, bought the theatre for a considerable amount of money.

In the course of time, the building demanded an unpostponable restoration. Thus, in 1951, the Austrian merchant José Sixto demolished the building of Teatro Payret, without taking into account that it was considered a National Monument, and the new Payret was opened completely as a cinema with an orchestra performance, directed by maestro Rodrigo Prats. The premiering movie was Pequeñeces (Little Things) with Jorge Mistral, Aurora Bautista and Sara Montiel. The cinematographic room that exists today, was used occasionally also for theatre performances. The Cathedral of Spanish Cinema soon became one of the largest cinemas in Havana.

After the Revolution, the building was used mainly as cinema. Due to its intensive use, restorations were necessary in 1969 and 1981. The restoration in 2008 was carried out by the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry to organize the Festival Internacional del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano (International Festival of New Latin American Cinema) in this building.

Currently, the Payret remains closed due to functional deterioration and lack of constructive maintenance since 2008. According the project, the Payret cinema-theater and the adjoining buildings will give their space to the construction of a five-star hotel of 300 rooms designed by the Ministry of Tourism of Cuba, which would occupy the entire block delimited by the streets San José, Lieutenant Rey, Zulueta and Paseo del Prado, in Old Havana. The work would be inscribed in the investment plan designed to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the founding of Havana.

The structure presents an architecture of severe classic exterior lines, but the interior has a modern style, designed by the prestigious firm Arellano y Batista that was also the contractor of the Bacardí Building and the Malecón. In the lobby, the bronze sculpture by Rita Longa, called The Illusion, stands out. On both side of the screen, there are the bas-reliefs of the nine muses of the Greco-Roman arts, also works of Longa.