Roman Theatre of Aosta

The only currently visible facade is the southern one, a full 22 meters high, characterized by a series of buttresses and arches and lightened by three superimposed orders of windows of various shapes and sizes. 

Also clearly identifiable are the semicircular seating rows that hosted the spectators (cavea), the orchestra (whose radius is 10 meters), and the stage wall (now reduced to the foundations only) which once rose with its rich facade decorated with columns, marble, and statues. 

It has been estimated that the Theatre could hold three to four thousand spectators. Some scholars believe that the theatre was equipped with a fixed roof. 

With the fall of the empire, until the 18th century, all memory of the building’s original function was lost, and its remains were recognized only much later: during the Middle Ages many buildings were attached to it, which were demolished during the modern recovery and restoration works. 

In 1864 some excavation tests brought to light a series of walls, while in the 1920s the monument received its first arrangement when the small houses surrounding it were demolished. However, the complete uncovering took place between 1933 and 1941, when important restoration and integration works were carried out. 

The latest research conducted on the masonry has allowed hypothesis that the structures currently visible were not all built in the first phase (1st century BC), but are the result of subsequent modifications still occurring in ancient times.