Heritage of Timișoara

Fabric 2 3 August 1919 blvd.

The former Apollo Movie Theatre

Alternative names:

Alexandru Sahia Movie Theatre / Apollo with Outdoor Garden Movie Theatre / Le Cinema / Park Movie Theatre

Completion date:

May 4, 1909

  • Architect: Arch Paul von Schuster Arch. Josef Ecker jr.
  • Former Owner: Arch. Josef Ecker jr. Timişoara City Hall Entrepreneur Georg Pflum
  • Property type: Private property
  • Protection type: Unlisted
  • Main arch. style Contemporary
  • Current condition Very good
  • Planimetry Rectangular Complex
  • No. of levels 1
  • Current functions Music club/night club
    Office Building




Apollo Movie Theatre was the second movie theatre in Timişoara, built in 1909 by Georg Pflum, an entrepreneur, after arch. Josef Ecker Jr.’s designs. Starting with 1913, the movie theatre came under the administration of Timişoara City Hall.

An interesting aspect of the times is that a large amount of the tickets’ sales was donated to orphanages and old-age homes in the city.

On July 15th, 1924, the new summer movie theatre in Fabric is inaugurated, from then on being called ‘The Apollo Movie Theatre With Summer Garden’. In the same year, there were 3 winter movie theatres in Timişoara and 3 summer movie theatres (in Cetate, Fabric and Mehala neighbourhoods). The general manager of the public movie theatres at the time was Popovici Ioan.

The acting Committee of Timişoara agrees, on March 7th, 1930, to bring in sound movies at the Capitol (in Cetate) and Apollo movie theatres, asking for state of the art equipment and finalization of the works by the fall of the same year. This plan would only be implemented in 1931. Both in the winter movie theatre, and in the summer one in Fabric, proper equipment was installed from the ‘Klang-Film’ company in Berlin.

Between 1954 and 1955, the building’s architecture is severely modified, according to a project coordinated by architect Paul von Schuster. A short history emphasizing the steps in the building’s architectural evolution can be seen on the Marele Ecran blog.

The building had multiple purposes over the years (from movie theatre - which also had an outdoor garden - to billiards hall, discoteque, and, lately, medical clinic) and multiple names (1909 - ‘Apollo’ Movie Theatre, 1926 - ‘Apollo with Outdoor Garden’ Movie Theatre, 1959 - ‘Alexandru Sahia’ Movie Theatre, 1966 - ‘Parc’ Movie Theatre, 2012 - ‘Le Cinema’ Club).

Authors of this file:

Research & text: Alexandra Palconi

Field research & mapping: arh. Vlad Pată

Audited by: Mihai Opriș

Translation into English: Alexandra Dragoş

Photographer: Flavius Neamciuc

Last modified: 2 years ago

Published on: 26 October 2017

Niciun material de pe această platformă online/site nu poate fi reprodus parţial, integral, modificat fără permisiunea anterioară explicită, prin acordul scris al Asociaţiei PRIN BANAT.


Conţinutul acestei platforme online/site, textele, grafica, fotografiile, software-ul, logo-urile şi orice alte materiale prezente pe site sunt protejate de legea dreptului de autor şi sunt proprietatea Asociaţiei PRIN BANAT. Află mai multe în secțiunea Terms & Conditions.

Add your contribution to this building!