There existed in the heart of Vila Franca de Xira the Cine-Teatro, an imposing hall with 736 seats built in the city center. A photograph published in 1950 in the newspaper Vida Ribatejana showed the building with modernist lines, dominated by a tower with the letters "Cine-Teatro" visible from a distance. The space was also associated with the Estalagem da Lezíria and functioned simultaneously as a cinema, theater and meeting place for the Vila Franca community.
Over the decades, the Cine-Teatro hosted numerous cultural activities. In May 1950, it received the play "Life Without Light" and shortly after, the Lisbon Dramatic Group presented "The Bear" by Anton Chekhov, an initiative linked to Manuela Porto and Fernando Lopes-Graça. In November of that year, Alves da Cunha premiered his company there with "The Doctor Judge." In 1965, the Ateneu Artístico Vilafranquense celebrated its 74th anniversary with a gala. In 1970, the ZiP-Xira program, with the participation of Jacinto Ramos, Guida Maria and António Mota Redol, took on a character of protest against the dictatorship, with PIDE banning a third session and seizing material.
For decades, the Cine-Teatro was a central meeting point for the city, where generations shared the same performance. A visit to the Cine-Teatro began before entering, with the walk to the center, the meetings at the door and the expectation of a different night, in a time when entertainment options were very limited.
In the early 1990s, the Cine-Teatro was demolished. In 1993, the Vila Franca Centro, a shopping center, appeared on the same site, opening in November 1994 with shops, restaurants, bowling and two cinema screens. The transformation represented a new era for that address, but beneath the memory of the shopping center remains the recollection of the old building where Vila Franca gathered to watch cinema, theater and music.
