Tyndaris (Tindari)

TYNDARIS (Tindari), ancient Magna Graecia, modern Italy.

COORDINATES: 38.08’37.78’’N // 15º02’32.79’’E
TIPOLOGY : Greek theatre. Urban.
DATE: End IV or first III B.C.
TRANSFORMATIONS: Orchestra and low part of the cavea transformed in Roman times for amphitheatre games.
CAPACITY: 3.000 spectators.
CAVEA: Facing north-east. Built against hillside. 76 m. diameter. Maenianum. it is not know the exact number of rows of seat but it was about 40, it has 11 cunei and an upper ambulacrum.
ORCHESTRA: 24 m. diameter in Greek times. In Roman times five rows of seat were removed for building the arena.
STAGE BUILDING: The stage had 2,8 m. high. The scene building had two storey. Bernabò Brea drew some plans where there are a reconstruction of the Scvaenae Frons, you can see them in the museum in the site.
LOCATION: Close to the Tindari´s Christian sanctuary. Tindari is 50 klm. west from Messina.
MY BEDSIDE TABLE: “Teatri antichi nell’area del Mediterraneo”. Palermo, I Quaderni di Palazzo Montalbo, 2004. // Tosi, Giovana; “Gli edificio per spettacoli nell’Italia romana”. Roma, Quasar, 2003. // Courtois, Catherine; “Le bâtiment de scène des théâtres d’Italie et de Sicile”. Providence, Louvain-la.Neuve, 1989. // Mitens, Karina; “Teatri greci e teatri inspirati all’architecttura greca in Sicilia e nell’Italia Meridionale c. 350-50 a.C.”. Roma, L’Erma di Bretschneider, 1988.// Neppi Modona, Aldo. “Gli edificio teatrali greci e romani”. Firenze, Leo S. Olschki, 1961. // Sear, Frank; “Roman theatres: an architectural study”. Oxford University Press, 2006. // Ciancio Rossetto, Paola; Giuseppina Pisani Sartorio (eds); “Teatri Greci e Romani: alle origini del linguaggio rappresentato”. Rome: SEAT, 1995.

OUT OF PRINT: In Tyndaris, when you leave the ancient theatre and reach the seaside you go into a spit of sand, as if the earth was entering the sea. it is possible to observe, with not so much imagination, between the sand and the waves, the echoes remnats of a broken civilization, bathed in salt. Immerse yourself un the Tyrrhenian sea, put the head out and brethe the coast of Italy in the distance, punctuated by the silhouette of Lipari... breathe the crowded silence of the past.