Scupi (Skopje)

SCUPI (Skopje), ancient Moesia Superior, modern FYR of Macedonia.

COORDENATES: 42º01’01.80’’N // 21º23’36.90’’E

TIPOLOGY: Roman theatre. Urban.

DATE: II a.D.

TRANSFORMATIONS:

CAPACITY:

CAVEA: Facing south-west. 98 m. diameter. Built against hillside, lower cavea rested on annular corridors.

ORCHESTRA: 28 m. diameter.

STAGE BUILDING: In scaenae frons, regia door in a curved niche, hospitalias in rectangular niches. Columnatio in Corinthian order. There is a passageway that connect stage building with orchestra.

LOCATION: Ancient theatre is west of modern Skopje.

MY BEDSIDE TABLE: “Anticki teatar na tlu Jugoslavije”, Novi Sad, 1881. // 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: I will not forget my visit to ancient Scupi...in the evening I visited the roman theatre, by night Spanish national football team won the World Championship.

Lychnidos (Ohrid)

LYCHNIDOS (Ohrid), ancient Macedonia , modern FYR Macedonia.

COORDINATES: 41º06'52.71" N // 20º47'37.66" E
TIPOLOGY : Greek Theatre. Urban.

DATE: II B.C.

TRANSFORMATIONS: Low seats remuved and orchestra adaptation in Roman times for amphiteatre games.

CAPACITY: 5.000 ? espectators. (Today 1.500)

CAVEA: Facing south-east. Rest on natural slope. Ima cavea: 12 steps in 4 cunei. Nothing survives of summa cavea. There are row of seats with greek names. Currentley used for summer performances and concerts.

MY BEDSIDE TABLE: 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: Summer rain toke me in Ohrid, a day in which the stone row of seat reborned and show me with special brightness their inscriptions, names of ancient Greek spectators taht could never iamgine that one day a traveler would sit on their location, in the same stone, and look toward the stage, in silence, waiting for the show, as they, more than two thousands years ago, expectant, eager to taste.