El Ateneo Grand Splendid

The old stage of El Ateneo Grand Splendid on Avenida Santa Fe in Buenos Aires, its red curtains still hanging, seen across a floor of bookcases where the theater seats used to be. The Grand Splendid opened as a theater in 1919 and became a bookstore in 2000, with its original decoration kept, including the dome painted by Nazareno Orlandi. The stage is now a café, so you can sit where the performers stood and read under the proscenium arch.