The Centro Municipal Integrado de El Coto occupies the former El Coto barracks, on the Plaza de la República in Gijón’s Este district. King Alfonso XIII laid the building’s first stone in 1900; it was refurbished by the architects Vicente Díez Faixat and Justo López García, and the centre opened in February 1998. Today the complex brings together the citizen services office, social services, the library with its media library, the health centre and the headquarters of the Municipal Sports Board.

For its cultural programme it has a 207-seat auditorium that hosts lectures, screenings, conferences and theatre, along with a paraninfo hall, an exhibition room and a 335 m² multipurpose room. The complex also includes a swimming pool with a 25-metre competition pool and a café whose terrace opens onto the square.