Venue: Roman Theater
Town: Zaragoza, ES

The Roman Theater of Zaragoza is a Roman theatre in the Roman colonia of Caesaraugusta -present-day Zaragoza, Spain-, in the Roman province of Hispania Tarraconensis. It was built in the first half of the 1st century AD, in the Age of Tiberius and Claudius, following the model of the Theatre of Marcellus in Rome. It was used for Roman theatrical performances and had a capacity of 6,000 spectators in a city where only lived 18.000 people. Currently in ruins, it was active until the third century. Its materials were used to build walls and other buildings. In 1973, archeological excavations uncovered it. It can currently be visited within the framework of the Cesaraugusta Theater Museum. It was declared Bien de Interés Cultural in 2001. The construction of the Roman theater of Caesaraugusta began in the early 1st century during the reign of the Roman Emperor Tiberius. It was completed under the rule of Emperor Claudius by the mid-1st century AD. Covering an area of 7,000 square meters (with a diameter of 106 meters), it ranks as one of the largest theaters in Roman Hispania. The theater could accommodate approximately 6,000 spectators in a city with a population of around 20,000 inhabitants. Unlike other theaters that utilized the natural slopes of the land, this building was constructed on flat ground using 'opus caementicium'. It was modeled after the Theatre of Marcellus in Rome, featuring a design of concentric rings with radial walls between them. These walls formed the cavea, or seating tiers, which were then covered with marble slabs, as was the orchestra. The facade was adorned with ashlar blocks in the 'opus quadratum' style, rising to an external height of three stories and twenty-two meters. The theater boasted a unique, independent entrance from the central door of the facade directly to the orchestra. This path ran perpendicular to the stage or scena and served as a central axis for the theater, exclusively for authorities to directly access their reserve