The State Opera and Ballet in Ulus, also known as the Grand Theater, was built as an Exhibition House between 1933-34. Initially, the building was used as an exhibition hall, true to its name. The first exhibition held was the "Yerli Mallar Sergisi (Domestic Goods Exhibition)", a good reflection of the then newly industrializing Republic. The building was converted into an Opera House in the late 1940s. With this transformation, the famous columned entrance was added to the building and many local and foreign works, from Gioacchino Rossini's Barber of Seville to Ahmet Kutsi Tecer's Koçyiğit Köroğlu, began to be presented to the people of Ankara. The Grand Theater still retains this function today.