Palau de les Arts

Sponsor Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias S.A

Lead contractors Dragados, Necso Acoustics and soundstage Waagner-Biro Bühnentechnik AG., Alfonso García (García B.B.M. S.L.)

Roofing contractor Blasco Construcciones

Order year 1997

Completion Opened 8 October 2005 (after nine years of construction)

Floor area 40,000 sqm Number of concert halls Three halls seating up to 4,000

Description The City of Arts and Sciences is an entertainment-based cultural and architectural complex in the city of Valencia in Spain. It is the most important modern tourist destination in Valencia. Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia is a part of the complex, known in English as the Queen Sofia Palace for the Arts. It is an opera house and cultural center in. The Queen Sophia Palace for the Arts is the final structure built of a grand City of Arts and Sciences concept designed by the Valencia-born and internationally acclaimed architect, Santiago Calatrava and was commenced in 1995 and completed in October 2005. The building rises 14 stories above ground and includes three stories below ground, and is 75m (246 ft) into the sky, making it the tallest opera house in the world. Beneath the expansive curved-roof structure, 230 m (755 ft) in length. The 40,000 m2 (431,000 sq ft), the building has four auditoriums, one of them is the Sala Principal (Main Hall), which seats 1,700 people and used primarily for opera, but it may be used also for dance and other performing arts. The auditorium has four tiers of seating, a stage equipped with all major facilities, and the third largest orchestra pit in the world, with a capacity for 120 musicians.