From the parish board, to the La Garriga performing activities center

For many generations of Garriguen residents, "the Patronat" has been an emblematic leisure space; often, the only space in the Garriga dedicated, at first, to the rascal and the young.

Located on the Passeig, between Vinyals and Ametlla streets, it is a building built between 1924 and 1926, the work of the architect Xavier Turull. Its origin is to be found in the town's need to have a theater in good condition, since the parish's old cellar did not meet the necessary conditions for the sections of the parish theater that existed at the time. It was necessary to find a new location and build a building with guarantees. The land chosen belonged to the Serra Foundation, presided over by Father Vich, the result of a donation, where the new Sant Lluís school would also be built during the same years.

The sale of part of the land financed the construction of the school and the Board of Trustees, which was inaugurated on September 19, 1926, as can be seen on a plaque in the lobby.

The first statutes said: "The Parish Council of the Garriga is an institution that aims primarily to attend to and procure by the means possible the Catholic social training of the children and young men of the population (...)" and would be directed by the titular priest. One of the first functions performed there was at Christmas 1926: "Los pastorcillos en Belén", with a general admission of 0.25 pesetas.

The new building – and the adjacent facilities, some of the school – generated an avalanche of memberships that nourished the boys' and girls' theater groups, the ping-pong, basketball, tennis teams, football... while hosting choral concerts, zarzuelas, sardanas, pole dances, Guardiola's party...

The civil war, of course, broke this dynamic. Many men had to join the ranks, the Sant Lluís school became mixed (and called Ferrer and Guard), and the Board of Trustees was occupied by international forces between the end of 1938 and the beginning of 1939. Some fire damaged the stage and the cinema machine disappeared, in addition to the costumes, chairs of the box office, sets and the entire theater library.

After the war, and thanks to patronage, the activities were able to resume, of course, now always in Spanish. During Franco's regime, the same type of acts will continue to be represented. In 1952 a mixed theater was definitively achieved and in 1962 a new cinema machine was bought. But during the seventies the crisis happened. Despite the reforms, the deficit was growing and the public was not responding. The "Save the Board" campaign (1978) managed to avoid a closure that did not occur until Christmas 1990. Three years later, the City Council bought the Parish Board and, after a period of neglect and some long reforms, resumed its activities in December 2002 before being officially inaugurated the following spring under the name Teatre de la Garriga-El Patronat.

Currently, it is the seat of the scenic activities of the Garriga, check its schedule