ROMAN THEATRE AND ARCHEOLOGICAL AREA

Discover Fiesole

Fiesole archeological site is located in the core center of the city and is what today can be described as "archaeological park characterized by important archaeological evidence and by the presence of historical, cultural and landscape-environmental".

The Fiesole territory conserves monuments of great value placed in a setting of outstanding natural beauty, which makes this city unique. In Fiesole are indeed obvious material evidence of its important past; Archeological research of the Commission began in 1877, bringing to light an area that housed some of the major monuments of the ancient Etruscan and Roman city.

BACKGROUND:
Fiesole was founded in northern Etruria, at the southern foot of the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, in the way of Felsina (old Bologna), around the fifth century. BC, following the Etruscan colonization of the Middle Valdarno, on a site where they are documented pottery fragments dating from the seventh millennium BC, and which have been found from the Bronze Age and Iron Age finds testify to the presence of settlements already present, the oldest monumental testimonies are constituted by so-called Fiesole stele (end VI-early ac), a funerary monuments made on site. The development of the city is closely linked to its location along the major roads between different geographical areas and its urban structure is defined (from the fourth century BC.)

The walls are the most tangible sign, in landscape scale, ancient settlement, still visible in the northern and eastern tract and that originally constituted a single square structure that marked the Fiesole Etruscan from the rest of nature. The very walls that the Romans, after the conquest of the I century beginnings. BC and the gradual transformation of Fiesole in Roman city, they decided not to kill and that on the north side formed a buttress balance for new and even more visible monumental buildings: the temple, the baths and the theater.

Inside the archeological area you can visit in chronological order: the Etruscan Temple, the first of which is attributable to the fourth century. BC (probably dedicated to the goddess Minerva ) and a later Roman period dated the first century BC. The structure of the temple, of Italic type, makes it possible to identify key elements of this architecture: the altar, the wide central staircase, the cell and two alae on either side, with the two in space in front of the altars.

The Roman Theatre was built between the late first century BC and early AD using stone obtained from the excavation of the rocky slope on which were progressively leaning the tiers of the auditorium. E 'of Greek type, with the characteristic semicircular shape. Through passages formed by four slabs ( vomitoria ) it was accessed to the gallery ( crypt ) covered by a vault that supported a porch or another order of seats ( ima cavea ), of which, however, no traces remain. From here he went down in the bleachers ( cavea ), partially original on the right side and completely rebuilt on the left side; public supply was facilitated by narrow stairs that divided the auditorium into four sectors.

In the eastern part of the archeological, built in the same period of the theater, there is the complex of Terme organized in two different indoor and outdoor spaces, representing a meeting place for citizens, a space dedicated to the wellness of body and mind . Through a portico, which enclosed the structure on the north and south sides, people arrived at the large open space where there were two large pools, a designated area for the gym called "cryptoporticus" and a cistern. The area covered was formed of three rooms: the frigidarium (cool), the tepidarium (passageway moderately heated), the calidarium (heated environment).

We also know that the area was occupied in Lombard age (VI - VII century AD), a necropolis; The exhibits testify, in fact, the Lombard presence in Fiesole: literally superimposed on Roman ruins.

residence fiesole I resti longobardi raccontano perciò una storia fatta di stratificazioni, in cui i "dominatori" si trovano a contatto con la popolazione locale, discendente da Etruschi e Romani.

Contents by Giulia Bondesan
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Residence Fiesole

Via degli Artigiani,1 - 50014 Fiesole (FI)

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