The Verona Arena is a Roman amphitheatre in Piazza Bra in Verona, Italy, which is internationally famous for the large-scale opera performances given there. It is one of the best preserved ancient structures of its kind.
The building itself was built in AD 30 on a site which was then beyond the city walls. The ludi (shows and games) staged there were so famous that spectators came from many other places, often far away, to witness them. The amphitheatre could host more than 30,000 spectators in ancient times.
Today, the Arena di Verona ancient amphitheater , located on Piazza Bra (Piazza Bra) in Verona , is a popular venue for the most prestigious opera festivals . Amphitheater , despite its age , is in excellent condition , and the ancient builders knew all the secrets of high-quality acoustics.
But peaceful spectacle at the Arena di Verona does not always happen . Several thousand years ago, the people of Verona came here to see more bloody spectacle, the most peaceful of which were chariot races . Here are the real carnage staged between Roman gladiators, reproducing the famous ancient battlefield. There were, of course, fights between gladiators alone . Interestingly, the gladiatorial games tried to get all city residents , including children and women , and even the 26 week of pregnancy did not stop girls from visiting ancient Arena di Verona .
Rent Verona was built in ’30 outside the city walls of Verona. In ancient times, the amphitheater could accommodate about 30,000 spectators. Figure is more than impressive , as the main arena of gladiators fighting – Colosseum – was designed for 70,000 people.
The round façade of the building was originally composed of white and pink limestone from Valpolicella, but after a major earthquake in 1117, which almost completely destroyed the structure’s outer ring, except for the so-called “ala”, the stone was quarried for re-use in other buildings. Nevertheless it impressed medieval visitors to the city, one of whom considered it to have been a labyrinth, without ingress or egress. Ciriaco d’Ancona was filled with admiration for the way it had been built and Giovanni Antonio Panteo’s civic panegyric De laudibus veronae, 1483, remarked that it struck the viewer as a construction that was more than human.