Anfiteatro Romano di Ancona

Ancona's Roman amphitheatre occupies the saddle between the Guasco and Cappuccini hills above the harbour. Medieval buildings grew over the ruins, and later excavation brought the ancient structure back into view.

Why it matters

Built in the Augustan age, the amphitheatre adapts its form to the rocky hillside. Rather than raising the entire seating bank on vaults, its builders cut part of the cavea into the limestone and supported the rest on masonry. This combination of terrain and engineering distinguishes the monument within Ancona's Roman landscape.

The site also preserves traces of later city life. After the arena fell out of use, its stone was reused and medieval religious and domestic buildings occupied the area. The ruins therefore record successive layers of Ancona's history, not only its Roman period.

What to notice

Surviving walls combine opus quadratum, opus reticulatum and brickwork. The cavea once rose in three tiers, with more than twenty seating rows and an estimated capacity of 8,000 to 10,000 people. Nearby remains belong to a Roman bath complex, including a chamber with a mosaic-lined basin and traces of its heating system.

Context and history

A Hellenistic road climbed the hillside toward the acropolis and temple of Venus before the amphitheatre was built. The arena was abandoned in the fourth century AD and later served as a source of building stone. From the thirteenth century, convents, churches and houses occupied parts of the area. The complex of Santa Palazia was later used as a prison.

In 1810, a cellar vault in the palace of Count Bonarelli was identified as one of the amphitheatre's entrances, the Porta Pompae; a second opening is identified more tentatively as the Porta Libitinensis. Systematic excavation began in 1930. Wartime damage and the 1972 earthquake led to further work that exposed and restored parts of the ancient structure.