located in a neo-baroque building from 1929, the building also has a "Grand Ballroom" with several rooms, known as the Casino de la Exposición. It was built to be the Seville pavilion for the Ibero-American ExpositionOn October 28, 1929, the theater was visited by the King and Queen of SpainThe exhibition ended in 1930 and the theatre was taken over by the municipality under the name of the Exhibition Theatre. Films were shown there and plays were staged.During the Civil War (1936-1939) the Casino was converted into a hospital and the theatre was abandoned. This abandonment led to the deterioration of its facilities, On 19 April 1977 the theatre was handed over to the Ministry of Culture, becoming known as the Lope de Vega National Theatre. in 1985, becoming the Lope de Vega Municipal Theatre again. It was subsequently restored by Víctor Pérez Escolano and re-inaugurated on 10 October 1987 with the opening ceremony of the 1987 Seville World Chess Championship between Soviet chess players Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov . It currently offers a highly varied programme, including plays, classical or early music concerts (the most prestigious Early Music Festival in Spain), theatre , dance , opera , jazz and flamenco . I