The Piccinni Municipal Theater in Bari, located on Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, is an Italian-style theater that opened in 1854 based on a design by architect Antonio Niccolini. On October 18, 1840, as reported by historian Giulio Petroni, a witness and key figure at the ceremony, the theater’s cornerstone was laid. Giuseppe Castagna, who was highly regarded at the Royal School of Scenography, oversaw the decoration work, coordinating a group of artists who had come from Naples. The figurative painter Luigi de Luise and the ornamentalist Leopoldo Galluzzi were responsible for the curtain. Fortunato Queriau, stage machinery director at the San Carlo Theater in Naples, focused on the stage machinery and the stage itself. Pietro Venier, set designer at the San Carlo Theater in Naples, designed the sets. Michele De Napoli, from Terlizzi, was responsible for the large backdrop. Innovative solutions were introduced into the theater’s original design, demonstrating the architect’s interest in the building’s structural elements and their functions, such as acoustics and visibility. Niccolini had envisioned a building with a unified façade, in which the taller central section was seamlessly integrated with the side wings through the horizontal cornices of the string courses and the simple terraced line of the roof. The theater occupied the central section of the building, while the side wings, completed in 1876 based on a design by Giovanni Castelli, housed City Hall and the Courthouse. The theater’s façade resembled that of a temple: a short flight of steps, heavy and solemn Doric columns; a portico serving a purely symbolic function to indicate the building’s dignity.