page_title: Greek Theatre of Syracuse
section_title: Subsequent history
hierarchical_section_title: Greek Theatre of Syracuse / Subsequent history
caption_attribution_description: Italiano: Teatro greco Siracusa Houel
context_page_description: The Greek theatre of Syracuse lies on the south slopes of the Temenite hill, overlooking the modern city of Syracuse in southeastern Sicily. It was first built in the 5th century BC, rebuilt in the 3rd century BC and renovated again in the Roman period. Today, it is a part of the Unesco World Heritage Site of "Syracuse and the Rocky Necropolis of Pantalica".
  Despite its abandoned state, it remains one of the most beautiful locations in the world, offering the most grandiose and picturesque spectacle that there is.
  — Vivant Denon, Voyage en Sicile, 1788
context_section_description: Remaining abandoned for centuries, it underwent progressive spoliation at the hands of the Spanish under Charles V, who used the stone blocks to construct new fortifications on Ortygia. This process led to the destruction of the scene building and the upper part of the seating. After the second half of the sixteenth century, the Marchess of Sortino, Pietro Gaetani, reactivated the ancient aqueduct which brought water to the top of the theatre, allowing the creation of several water mills in the cavea, of which the so-called casetta dei mugnai (Millers' Cottage) at the top of the cavea remains visible.
  At the end of the eighteenth century, interest in the theatre revived and it was mentioned and depicted by the erudites of the period (Arezzo, Fazello, Mirabella, Bonanni) and by famous travellers (d'Orville, von Riedesel, Jean-Claude Richard, Houel, Denon, etc.). In the following century proper excavations took place, thanks to the interest of Landolina and Cavallari who busied themselves with freeing the monument from the dirt which had built up on top of it. Subsequently, archaeological investigation was carried out by Paolo Orsi and other archaeologists, ending with Voza in 1988.
  In 1914, the Istituto Nazionale del Dramma Antico (INDA) began the annual performance of Greek drama in the ancient theatre (the first was the tragedy Agamemnon of Aeschylus, directed by Ettore Romagnoli). The ancient Greek tragedies are performed at sunset, in Italian (with translations by famous writers such as Salvatore Quasimodo), without sound systems because of the quality of the theatre's acoustics. Each theatre season begins in May and ends in July, attracting thousands of spectators from all over the world. Some of the most illustrious performed tragedies are Antigone, Oedipus Rex, Electra, Medea and The Bacchae. Aside from this, the theatre has enjoyed use for concerts and official prizegivings, like the Premio Vittorini, but such use has been tightly limited for conservation reasons.
  Since 2010 the theatre has been one of the monuments of the Servizio Parco Archeologico di Siracusa and of the archaeological area of the surrounding comuni, an organ of the Regione Siciliana, Assessorato Regionale dei Beni Culturali e dell'Identità Siciliana. In 2014, the Assessorato authorised the use of the theatre for summer events like music, singing and dance performances.
caption: Greek theatre of Syracuse, Houel
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