Ancient Roman theatre beneath Palazzo Vecchio reopens to guests

After 5 years of closure, the archaeological web site beneath Florence’s city corridor welcomes the general public once more, revealing stays from the Roman theatre of Florentia and later medieval layers.

The archaeological excavations beneath Palazzo Vecchio are open once more to the general public after a five-year interruption. The reopening, organised by the Florentine Civic Museums along with the MUS.E Foundation, permits guests to discover one of many metropolis’s most outstanding underground websites, which traces Florence’s growth from the Roman age to the Renaissance.

Guided excursions can be found each Saturday and Sunday at 12 p.m. and 12:45 p.m., restricted to fifteen contributors per group, with tickets costing €4.

The space preserves the stays of the massive Roman theatre that after stood on the coronary heart of Florentia. Built in the course of the metropolis’s early colonial section and expanded within the imperial interval — in all probability beneath Emperor Hadrian — the theatre may maintain between 8,000 and 10,000 spectators. Its semi-circular cavea prolonged beneath in the present day’s Palazzo Vecchio and Palazzo Gondi, with the stage oriented in the direction of Via dei Leoni and the seating space dealing with what’s now Piazza della Signoria.

The theatre remained in use till the fifth century AD, when the decline of the Roman Empire and the Gothic Wars led to its abandonment and decay. Over time, the corridors referred to as burelle, which supported the cavea, had been reused as storerooms, lime kilns, animal stalls and burial websites. During the Lombard interval, elements of the construction had been fortified and used as a watchtower referred to as the Guardingo. In the Middle Ages, some sections had been even became prisons.

From the eleventh century onward, new buildings rose above the Roman ruins — together with the tower homes of the Foraboschi and Manieri households, and the residence of the Bellialberti, later the seat of the town’s Executioner. All of those had been finally included into the evolving Palazzo Vecchio, whose building started on the finish of the thirteenth century.

The reopening follows a protracted closure prompted first by the COVID-19 pandemic after which by security and fire-prevention works. City cultural councillor Giovanni Bettarini mentioned the return of visits makes accessible “a useful heritage that tells the traditional story of Florence’s origins.”

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