Theatre · Augusta Emerita
Teatro de Augusta Emerita
Today: Teatro romano de Mérida, Mérida
- Place
- Augusta Emerita (Mérida)
- Kind
- Theatre
- Built
- c. 16 to 15 BCE
- What remains
- Ruins
The consul Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, patron of the colony, paid for the theatre, and a date cut into the building itself puts its opening at about 16 to 15 BCE. The stage front seen today is a remodelling of the 1st century, and there was another under Constantine, between 333 and 337. It was abandoned in the 4th century and lay buried but for the upper seats, which the townspeople called the Seven Chairs; since 1933 it has held the classical theatre festival.