Roman Theatre of Mérida

Interesting facts

The modern festival opened on 18 June 1933 with Seneca's Medea, translated by Miguel de Unamuno and starring Margarita Xirgu, before more than 3,000 spectators.

The Mérida festival is considered the oldest classical theatre festival held in Spain.

The semicircular auditorium measures about 86 metres across, and spectators reached it through thirteen exterior doors.

The columned stage front rises 17.5 metres and stretches roughly 60 metres across the stage.

Its column shafts were cut from marble quarried at Macael, in the far south-east of Spain.

Excavators found a statue of Augustus dressed as Pontifex Maximus, Rome's high priest, along with a statue of Tiberius.

For modern performances the theatre seats about 3,000 people, roughly half its Roman capacity.

The theatre was declared a Spanish national monument in 1912, only two years after excavation began.

Why it is worth it

Mérida, in Extremadura, began as the Roman colony of Emerita Augusta, capital of the province of Lusitania. Of all the Roman monuments that still punctuate the town, its theatre is the one people come for: a stage front of marble columns rebuilt from fallen fragments, standing before a curved auditorium cut into the slope of the San Albín hill. Inscriptions name Marcus Agrippa, Augustus's right-hand man and patron of the colony, as its sponsor, and date its opening to 16–15 BC.

The building follows the Vitruvian model closely and was planned together with the amphitheatre next door. It held about 6,000 spectators, divided by rank: three wide marble-covered rows of honour right by the orchestra for officials, a lower section of more than twenty rows for the wealthy, and smaller upper tiers carried on vaults. The orchestra is still paved in white and bluish marble. The stage front visible today dates from a remodelling in the first century AD and was altered again under Constantine in the 330s. Its Corinthian columns have blue-veined marble shafts with white capitals, and between them stand copies of statues found in the excavations, among them Ceres, Pluto and Proserpina and figures in togas and armour thought to be imperial portraits; the originals are in the National Museum of Roman Art nearby. Behind the stage lies a colonnaded garden with a small room for the cult of the emperor.

After the theatre fell out of use in the fourth century it was gradually buried, and for centuries only the tops of the upper seating showed above ground. Locals called these seven concrete stumps the Seven Chairs, and a legend told that seven Moorish kings sat on them to decide the fate of the city. Excavation began in 1910 under José Ramón Mélida, and from 1962 the architect José Menéndez-Pidal reassembled much of the stage front and seating. Since 1933 the theatre has hosted the Mérida International Festival of Classical Theatre, so on summer nights Greek and Roman plays are again performed on the stage built for them. It is part of the Archaeological Ensemble of Mérida, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1993.

Getting there

The theatre is on the south-eastern side of Mérida's historic centre, next to the Roman amphitheatre. Badajoz Airport (BJZ) is about 42 km away.

From the encyclopaedia

The Roman Theatre of Mérida is a Roman theatre in the Roman colonia of Emerita Augusta –present-day Mérida, Spain–, capital of the Roman province of Lusitania. Its construction was promoted by the consul Vipsanius Agrippa and was built in 16–15 BCE. It was used for Roman theatrical performances during ancient Rome. Since 1933, it houses the International Festival of Classical Theatre of Mérida.

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Roman Theatre of Mérida

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

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From the encyclopaedia