Sala Equis: Bar in Madrid's Last Porn CinemaAudio guide

I’ll tell you the secrets of Sala Equis. I guide you here with the map, or you can listen from home. What you see is not what you think, and knowing it is worth it. Some narrations are AI voices and others are real people.

Free4 min AI voice

Audio in:EnglishSpanishGermanFrenchItalianPortugueseChinese

Take it on your walk: the app guides you and it plays on its own when you arrive

How it works

Go there
the app walks you there from wherever you are.
Listen there or from home
it plays by itself when you arrive, or press play from wherever you are. In your language if it was recorded in it.
Keep discovering
the Madrid map has more gems like this one, and you can put them together in a tour.

Story

In Lavapiés, on Duque de Alba street, striped seats face a huge screen. A bar serves food. A building over a hundred years old breathes as the neighborhood's living room. In nineteen forty-one, Isidro Lorca Jamar opened the Cine Alba here. The first film was German: 'Beyond the Mountains'. Continuous sessions from the morning. For almost forty years, it was a family cinema. Local people, couples, regular movies. A cinema in Lavapiés. In nineteen seventy-nine, Cine Alba changed. It started showing uncensored films, with scenes of nudity and sex. Spain was emerging from forty years of dictatorship. Freedom arrived like this: on the neighborhood's screens. On March tenth, nineteen eighty-six, the cinema crossed the line. It became Cine Sala X. A porn cinema in Lavapiés. Almost thirty years passed like this. Lavapiés changed. Madrid changed. But Cine Sala X kept lighting its sign every night. It was the last open Sala X in Madrid. On March eighth, two thousand fifteen, the doors closed. The building was left empty. Madrid was left without porn cinemas. A year later, other people came in. The people of 'El Imparcial'. They wanted to recover the cinema, but in a different way. Payser built. Plantea Estudio designed. In November two thousand seventeen, Sala Equis opened. Sixty-four seats, thematic cycles every month. The name is a play on words that keeps the thirty years of X cinema without hiding them. Today it is more than cinema. Live music, circus, conferences. The walls show layers of paint, cracks, stains. They didn't cover them. They let the building tell its story. From mansion to newspaper, from family cinema to X cinema, from ruin to cultural hall. The building never stopped transforming. Listen to the full guide and I'll tell you how it all happened.

Visiting Sala Equis

How to get there: The closest transport stop is Colegiata-Tirso de Molina bus stop, 78 meters away. Conde de Romanones metro/train stop is 80 meters away.

Frequently asked questions

What is the history of Sala Equis?

Sala Equis has a rich history, starting as a mansion in the 1800s, then becoming an imprint for 'El Imparcial' newspaper in 1913. It later transformed into Cine Alba in 1941, showing regular films until it became a porn cinema in 1986. It closed in 2015 and reopened in 2017 as Sala Equis, a cultural venue.

What can I see at Sala Equis today?

Today, Sala Equis offers a mix of films, live music, circus, conferences, and exhibitions. It features 64 seats and hosts thematic film cycles each month, along with a bar serving food and drinks.

What is the significance of the name 'Sala Equis'?

The name 'Sala Equis' is a play on words, with 'Equis' meaning 'X' in Spanish. It acknowledges the venue's past as a porn cinema while embracing its new role as a cultural space.