Teatro Romano - Cadiz, Spain
Posted by: 
manchanegra
N 36° 31.685 W 006° 17.633
29S E 742285 N 4045930
In 1980, a fire in an old Cadiz warehouse caused an exciting discovery. The Roman Theater of Cadiz.
Waymark Code: WMC1F2
Location: Andalucía, Spain
Date Posted: 07/14/2011
Views: 14
In 1980, in the El Pópulo district of Cádiz, there was a fire in some old warehouses belonging to a company called Vigorito, SA, causing catastrophic damage.
In the aftermath of the fire, an exciting discovery was made: the remains of an ancient Roman theatre.
The fire had destroyed the warehouses revealing a layer of construction that was judged to be the foundations of some medieval buildings; the foundations of these buildings had been built, in turn, upon much more ancient stones, hand-hewn limestone of a Roman character.
Systematic excavations, which still continue, have revealed a largely intact Roman theatre.
The theatre, constructed by order of Lucius Cornelius Balbus (minor) during the 1st century BC, is the second largest Roman theatre in the world, surpassed only by the theater of Pompeii in the south of Rome. Cicero, in his Epistulae ad Familiares ("Letters to his friends"), wrote of its use by Balbus for personal propaganda.
According to archaeologists, this discovery confirms the greatness of the Roman city of Gades. The ancient city had a population even greater than the 80,000 people who lived in Cádiz during the 16th and 17th century, when the city dominated trans-Atlantic commerce, and it was one of the most prosperous cities of the Roman Empire.
The theater was abandoned in the 4th century AD and over it´s ruins the Muslims built a fortress.
In the 13th century, King Alfonso X conquered Cadiz and built in the area it´s medieval city.
Today there are still modern buildings over the theater preventing further excavations.
The Cadiz Roman Theater has some distinct caractheristics from other Roman Theaters.
-It´s one of the biggest. It´s diameter is aroud 120 meters and it´s capacity was around 20.000 people (wich is a lot considering that the town population was around 50.000)
-It´s the oldest of the known Theaters in the Iberian Peninsula
-It´s one of the few buildings of the Roman Hispania that is mentioned in the works of writers like Cicerus or the Greek Estrabón. A letter from Asinio Polión, governor of Bética, to Cicerus says that Balbo the minor founder of Neápolis, represented in the Gades Theater a work by himself, and, he remembered his colaboration with Julius Caesar in that same theater.
Most Relevant Historical Period: Roman Empire > 27 B.C.
Admission Fee: Free
Opening days/times:
Everyday from 10h to 14h30
Web Site: [Web Link]
Condition: Partly intact or reconstructed
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