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Centennial Park (Parque Centenario) is a park in the heart of Bucaramanga, just a couple blocks north of Parque Santander. The park isn’t really special and is full of undesirable characters. It’s fairly clean but we felt it was a bit neglected as well.
Eastern Cultural Center
There are two buildings of note on the park. The most important is the Eastern Cultural Center (Centro Cultural del Oriente). It was built between 1898 and 1911 as a school and functioned as such until 1994. In 1999, it was remodeled and turned into a cultural center.
The building is beautiful but didn’t seem very inviting. We walked into one of the courtyards where there was a special program for children, and there’s also a small military museum located there. On the back side is the Café del Oriente, which serves decent coffee and some pastries.
Santander Theatre
The other important building is the Santander Theatre. It opened in February 1932 and closed down in 2001. In 2006, locals got together and created a foundation in order to save the theatre. It was under renovation when we passed by but has since reopened.
