Download World premiere opening of the foyer of the Roman Theatre under

The event will take place Saturday 4 October at the end of the UNESCO World Forum on Culture World premiere opening of the foyer of the Roman Theatre under Palazzo Vecchio For the first time, videos of second-­century Romans arriving at the theatre will be projected on the walls of the vomitorium and on the theatre’s circular ambulatory. The excavation will be open for guided visits over the next few days. On Saturday 4 October, the foyer of the Roman Theatre underneath Palazzo Vecchio will be inaugurated during the closing ceremonies of the 3d UNESCO World Forum on Culture & Cultural Industries, in the presence of the Director-­‐General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, of Dario Nardella, Mayor of Florence, and of Andrea Pessina, superintendant of archaeological heritage in Tuscany. The space that will be presented in this world premiere, and that the public will be able to visit in the following days, is accessed through one of four doors located in the Cortile della Dogana in Florence’s Palazzo Vecchio, a building that is a symbol of the city and of its government. A new stairway connects this indoor square to the archaeological area underneath it: just three meters takes one on a trip through time, from the 21st century to the second century BCE. Palazzo Vecchio is located in the Ancient Roman nucleus of the city and in the area recognized as UNESCO world heritage; the building embodies about two thousand years of history and offers a social and political interpretation of the city from the Roman Theatre to Medieval times, through the Renaissance to the present day. The area around this building, the square out front and the adjacent streets contain testimonies of the founding of the city of Florentia (between 30 and 15 BCE) up until now.
The notably large Roman Theatre, which could accommodate about 5000 spectators, is located underneath the current Palazzo Vecchio and Palazzo Gondi. It is in front of a nucleus of Roman public services, with baths, thermal baths and theatre. As visitors descend the new stairwell, they will finally be able to view the Roman wall of the vomitorium, the main access route to the theatre’s stage that was used at the end of events for quick exit of the public. Above, the visitor will see more recent arches that support the pilaster on which rests the stage of the Salone dei Cinquecento above: a handy reminder that the symbol of citizen power rests upon Roman public space. Raised passageways bring the visitor inside the vomitorium, where the first traces of the theatre’s circular ambulatory are visible – a corridor that functioned as an entryway from public exterior space, and that is located underneath the current Cortile della Dogana. This space may be imagined as a future entryway to the Museum of Palazzo Vecchio, perhaps using symbolic architecture entirely built in glass. Continuing along the pathway, one sees some late medieval flooring from when extant burella (underground spaces) were made into city jail cells.
Passing through an arch through the theatre’s wall that was created by Simone del Pollaiolo, known as Il Cronaca, in order to build the east wall of the Salone dei Cinquecento (the one assigned to Leonardo and frescoed by Vasari), one can observe the differences in walling techniques between the Roman colony and the Florentine Republic. The pavement changes to terracotta and stone as one finds oneself still underground but in the Middle Ages. We are on via di Bellanda, a medieval road with tower houses on it from the 12th and 13th centuries. The raised passageway then brings visitors into a room currently set up in a test drive of a future permanent museum display. One can appreciate the archaeological stratification that narrates the city’s evolution, looking at the burella of the Roman Theatre, the Medieval roads and finally up to the present day. Visitors are saluted by four Roman statues at the end of the display, temporarily removed from the North wall of the Salone dei Cinquecento due to restoration, currently but back in their rightful time period. The excavation of the Roman Theatre and the creation of the display in its foyer is being carried out by Cooperativa Archeologia commissioned by the City of Florence and under the scientific direction of the Soprintendenza Archeologica della Toscana. Videos, created specifically for this location by Milan-­‐based creative group Cameranebbia, will be projected on the walls in order to illustrate the history of the theatre and of the building above it. The first video, on the roman wall of the vomitorium where it meets via di Bellanda, shows the shadows of a procession of spectators from second-­‐century BCE Florentia making their way towards the theatre. The second video, projected on a medieval area of the excavation, is a computerized animation of a fresco by Giotto that recalls the architecture of this artist’s period, this time using geometry and the play of light and shadow. These are accompanied by sound that will render the experience complete.