Wikipedia
Tabakalera is a former tobacco factory in San Sebastián, Spain which was converted into the International Centre for Contemporary Culture of San Sebastián. Located in the Egia district of San Sebastián, next to the Estación del Norte railway station and the Cristina Enea park, it takes up one of the biggest plots (13.277 m) of the urban area.
For 90 years (1913–2003) Tabakalera was a tobacco factory. It was one of the main employers in San Sebastián and most of the workers were women. The building took the name of the enterprise that managed the tobacco production in Spain until the privatisation process that converted Tabacalera into Altadis.
In 2003 the factory was closed by Altadis. A year later, in 2004, the San Sebastián City Council, the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa and the Basque Government bought the building in order to transform it into an international contemporary culture centre.
Since 2007 Tabakalera organised a wide sort of activities. Exhibitions like Summer by Julian Schnabel (2007), No es Neutral (2008), Egiatik (2008) and Look Again (2009) or experimental shortfilm screenings like LABO, in collaboration with Clermont-Ferrand Festival.
In 2010, refurbishment works began in the building. On September 11, 2015, the renovated building was inaugurated. The building contains exhibition halls, a multi-purpose plaza, a multi-purpose hall, a cinema theatre, a creation library, media labs, spaces for art creation, a cafeteria, a restaurant, a residence for artists, and a hotel. It also hosts the headquarters of local culture institutions Kutxa Kultur, the Basque Cinemathèque, the San Sebastián International Film Festival, and the Etxepare Basque Institute.