Victoria Eugenia Theater

This guide to the Victoria Eugenia Theater in San Sebastián follows the building from its royal opening on July 14, 1912, named for the queen who inaugurated it, through the decades when Hollywood came to this Basque stage rather than the other way around. You'll hear about Alfred Hitchcock choosing it to premiere Vertigo, and later North by Northwest, and about Elizabeth Taylor and Audrey Hepburn walking the same red carpet during the theater's run as home to the San Sebastian Film Festival from 1953 to 1999. The guide also follows what forced the doors shut that same year, and the years the building stood empty afterward. Look up at the carved allegorical figures on the sandstone facade as you approach.