Metropol-Lichtspiele, Eisenberg

The Metropol used to be a cinema on Malzplan in Eisenberg, Thuringia. Established in 1913, it operated until 1952, when it was superseded by the Karl-Marx-Lichtspiele on Schützenplatz. In 2018, the building was renovated and converted into five apartments. Around that time, a new painted sign was added to the façade. It’s based on a typeface that apparently was chosen to refer to the beginnings of the cinema in the early twentieth century.

The origins of the the typeface are unknown. Stylistically, it can be classified as Art Nouveau. The first known sighting is in a 1970 catalog by Californian phototype provider Lettergraphics, under the name Chianti. It’s not clear whether it was based on an older typeface or alphabet, or whether it was an original creation. Four years later, it appeared in a specimen book by Berthold Fototype, now named Freddy, and credited to Facsimile Fonts, another Californian company. In 1978, Castcraft in Chicago showed the bottom-heavy design as Talos (“similar to Chianti”).

The version that was used as the basis for the sign in Eisenberg likely is one of the many digital interpretations, which include Pantagruel (Scriptorium, 1993), Cordeballet (Alexandra Leopoldovna Gophmann, 2006), and Display Art One (Gerald Gallo, 2009).

The photo was taken by Monsieur Adrien in September 2024.