Chaeronea (Heronia)

CHAERONEA (Heronia), ancient Beotia, modern Greece.

 

COORDINATES: 38º29’34.79’’N // 22º50’24.56’’E

TIPOLOGY: Archaic Greek theatre. Urban.

DATE: Late V B.C.

TRANSFORMATIONS: Curved cavea from IV B.C. Some transformations from Roman times.

CAVEA: Facing north.Rock cut.  Earlier cavea 30 m. diameter, with 5 rows of seats, separated by podium from 3 rows of seats. Later cavea, shallow irregular curve, 37 m. diameter, with 10 rows of seats in 2 cunei, separated from 4 rows by rock cut wall.

ORCHESTRA:

STAGE BUILDING: Ther´s not remains.

LOCAION: At the foot of north summit of Mt. Petrachos, in modern Heronia, 50 klm. east from Delphi.

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. // Arias, Paolo Enrico; “Il teatro greco fuori di Atene”. Firenze, G.C. Sansoni, 1934.

 

 

OUT OF PRINT:

"This landscape is hard as silence

tightens in his breast his fiery stones

tightens to light their orphans olive groves and vineyards

tightens the jaws. No water. Only light."

                        -Yannis Ritsos-

 

Acinipo (Ronda la Vieja)

ACINIPO (Ronda la Vieja), ancient Baetica, modern Hispania.

 

COORDINATES: 36º49’54.61’’N // 5º14’25.79’’W

TIPOLOGY: Roman theatre. Urban.

DATE: Half I B.C.

TRANSFORMATIONS: Scene building last I B.C. or first I A.D.

CAPACITY: 3.000 spectators.

CAVEA: Facing east. 62 m. diameter. Maenianum: Ima cavea with 14 rows of seats in 6 cunei. Summa cavea with 4 rows in 4 cunei. Cut into rock.

ORCHESTRA: 21 m. diameter, paved in stone, there are pink marble remains, surrounded by wall. One step for bisellia.

STAGE BUILDING: Proscaenium with 3 curved and 2 rectilinear niches; there are aulaeum remains, with 6 mast holes. Pulpitum was 29,4 x 7,9 m. The scaenae frons, very well preserved, is rectilinear, with two storeys. Postscaenium with 4 rectangular rooms.

LOCATION: West side of ancient town.Acinipo is 18 klm. north-east from Ronda.

MY BEDSIDE TABLE: “Teatros romanos de Hispania” Universidad de Murcia, Murcia, 1993 // 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:

“A cloud in the sky

drives to the light...
                        -Where?
No one must ask
                        (Time
tresh love
all the dream of the heart)”

-Emilio Prados-

Asisium (Assisi)

ASISIUM (Assisi), ancient Regio VI, modern Italy.

COORDINATES: 43º04’13.46’’N // 12.37’05.76’’E

TIPOLOGY: Roman theatre. Urban.
DATE: First I A.D.
TRANSFORMATIONS:
CAPACITY:

CAVEA: Facing south-east. 60 m. diameter. Built on radial vaults, surrounded by ambulacrum. Only some arches survives in a garden close to Via del Torrione, the facade had 23 arched openings. It probably had two maeniana.

ORCHESTRA:

STAGE BUILDING: Close to town walls, under Via del Torrione and Vicolo Bovi.

LOCATION: The theatre remains are 120 m. east from ancient amphitheatre, between Via del Torrione and Via Montecavallo, close to Cattedrale.

MY BEDSIDE TABLE: Tosi, Giovana; “Gli edificio per spettacoli nell’Italia romana”. Roma, Quasar, 2003.// 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: Sometimes the imagination is fed by small elements to reconstruct somenthing big, an exrcise approaching to the past, playing tracks, holding a straw.

Sillyon (Asar Köy)

SILLYON (Asar Köy), ancient Pamphylia / Asia Minor, modern Turkey.

COORDINATES: 36º59’24.98’’N // 30º59’14.24’’E

TIPOLOGY: Greek theatre. Urban.

DATE:

TRANSFORMATIONS:

CAPACITY: 2.000 spectators.

CAVEA: Facing sout-east. 60 m. diameter. Only 9 top rows of seats survives. The theatre was on the edge of the hill and collapsed in 1969, falling down part of the cavea, the stage building and the nearby odeon. George Bean saw 15 rows of seats in 60´s.

ORCHESTRA: Nothing survives.

STAGE BUILDING: Nothing survives.

LOCATION: Ancient Sillyon is on a hill, 20klm north-east from ancient Perge; 34 klm. north-east from Antalya. The theatre remains are on south rim of acropolis hill.

MY BEDSIDE TABLE: Yilmaz, Yasar; “Anadolu Antik Tiyatrolari”. Istanbul, Yem Yanin, 2010.// 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. // Bean, George; “Turkey´s southern shore”. London, Ernest Benn Limited, 1968.// Freely, John; “The eastern mediterranean coast of Turkey”. Istanbul, Matbaacilik ve Yayincilik A.S., 1998.

 

 

OUT OF PRINT: The ancient Sillyon theatre was the first one I visited in my first travel to Turkey; I can not explain the exciting feelings I had, could not have a better start. The place of ancient Sillyon is absolutely fascinating, magical and enigmatic. A real place where you can talk with the silence, a silence that make you drunk. From the seats, surrounded by sheep I remembered that verses: “Extend the look / fly it in the infinite horizon / like a bird or the rain that settle”. Pamphylia under my fe

Thera (Thira, Santorini Island)

THERA (Thira, Santorini Island, Cyclades), ancient Achaea, modern Greece.

COORDINATES: 36º21’47.99’’N // 25º28’43.72’’E

TIPOLOGY: Greek theatre. Urban.
DATE: First half III B.C.
TRANSFORMATIONS: Presesent stone cavea at half II B.C. Roman scaena at Tiberian time, I A.D.
CAPACITY: 1.500 spectators.
CAVEA: Facing east-north-east. Cavea is enclosed in rectangular walls. Ima cavea with 23 rows of seats in 5 cunei.
ORCHESTRA: Circular orchestra, 9,58 m. diameter.
STAGE BUILDING: The front wall of Roman scene building was built on line of Hellenistic proscaenium wall.
LOCATION: The theatre is south-east of the ancient remains. Ancient Thera is located at east of Santorini island, in the Cyclades.
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. // Arias, Paolo Enrico; “Il teatro greco fuori di Atene”. Firenze, G.C. Sansoni, 1934.

OUT OF PRINT:

“They will smell of incense, and their faces are burnt by their crossing through the great dark places”. –The sleep of the brave- Odysseas Elytis.