São João National Theatre

The façade is the paramount element of architecture, the act that materialises an interior and forms the boundary between inside and outside. It personifies the interior, revealing only what can be told, and defines the building’s role in the city, integrating into a whole that orchestrates territory, people, and eras. The façade must express the significance of events inside the building and the backdrop of what happens outside, reflecting the aesthetics and symbolism of an era, shaped by the architect’s design, engineer’s calculations, and craftsmen’s execution.

Historically, façade techniques and expressions evolved: from the thick, closed medieval façades, to Gothic façades pierced with colourful stained glass, to the baroque splendour showcasing internal achievements. The Teatro São João is a classic example, with its façade reinvented after the 1908 fire by architect José Marques da Silva, inspired by the Opéra Garnier, creating a frieze of figures depicting human emotions such as love, hate and even nudity, with concrete disguised as stone to suspend these sculptures.

Decades later, after periods of neglect, the theatre’s façade was revitalised between 1992 and 1995, enhanced by João Carreira’s vibrant intervention in the 1990s. In the 21st century, the sculptures showed deterioration requiring careful restoration, highlighted in the twenty-seventh edition of Sebenta d’Obra, where architect Ângela Melo and engineer Esmeralda Paupério share how they preserved the “smiles and tears” of each sculpture, exemplifying a true work of precision, history, construction, and respect for the knowledge of different eras.