The Ancient Theatre of Taormina: Sicily’s Greek Theatre Below Mount Etna
by Stella Mazonakis · Greek City TimesHigh above the Ionian Sea, with Mount Etna smoking in the distance, the ancient theatre of Taormina is one of the most spectacular reminders that Sicily was once part of the Greek world.
A Greek city in Sicily
Greeks founded their first colony in Sicily, Naxos, in 734 BC, just below today’s Taormina. The hilltop city that grew above it took the Greek name Tauromenion (Ταυρομένιον), later Latinised as Tauromenium. Along with Syracuse, Akragas and dozens of other cities, it belonged to what the Romans called Magna Graecia, “Great Greece”.
Built by Greeks, rebuilt by Romans
A Greek theatre stood here from around the third century BC, in the Hellenistic period. It was cut into the slope of Monte Tauro so that the audience looked past the stage to the coast and Etna. Archaeologists have also found remains of an earlier Hellenistic building beneath the Roman seating.
Read more: ‘Breast Is Best’? Ancient Greek Mothers Breastfed for Nearly Four Years
After Rome took control of Sicily, the theatre was rebuilt on a grander scale, probably under the emperors Trajan or Hadrian. In the third century AD it was remodelled again: the orchestra became an arena and the stage was removed, so it could host the kind of spectacles Roman audiences wanted.
How big is it?
The theatre measures about 107 metres across and could hold around 10,000 spectators. It is one of the oldest theatres in Magna Graecia with a curved cavea (seating area) rather than the older trapezoid shape, and the seating was divided into nine wedges. On each side of the stage building (skene) stood a hall known as a basilica.
It is often called an “amphitheatre”, but it is a theatre: a half-circle facing a stage, built for drama and music, not a full oval arena.
Still on stage
More than two thousand years on, the theatre is still in use. It is the home of the Taormina Film Festival, has hosted the David di Donatello film awards, and stages concerts, opera and ballet each summer. Film fans will know it from Woody Allen’s Mighty Aphrodite (1995), where a Greek chorus performs on its stage, and from the second season of HBO’s The White Lotus.
Visiting tips
The site is a short, steep walk from Corso Umberto in the old town. Go early or late in the day for softer light on Etna and fewer crowds, and check the events calendar, because evening concerts can close the site early. Access is difficult for people with limited mobility.
Read more: other Greek theatres in Italy: Herakleia at Policoro
Sources: Wikipedia, Ancient theatre of Taormina: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_theatre_of_Taormina; Wikipedia, Taormina: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taormina.
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