Rating
5/5 (based on Google user reviews)
User Reviews
The Roman amphitheatre of Italica is a ruined Roman amphitheatre situated outside the ancient Roman settlement of Italica, around 300 metres from the city's northern entrance. The amphitheatre's location is in present-day Santiponce, Andalusia, close to the city of Seville.
It was built during the reign of emperor Hadrian (who was born in Italica), approximately between the years AD 117 and 138, and was one of the largest in the entire Roman Empire. Italica was largely abandoned by the Romans in the 3rd century. It was rediscovered during the Renaissance, in the 17th century, and work to unearth the amphitheatre began in the late 19th century. The amphitheatre is now a tourist site offering visitor tours.
The amphitheatre had capacity of 25,000 spectators. It has an elliptical shape, with a major axis of 160 metres and minor axis of 137 metres, it had three levels of stands, of which the first remains intact, the second partially so, and the third mostly in ruin. Under the level of the old wooden floor of the amphitheater there was a service pit for the different gladiatorial shows and fights against wild beasts, called venatio. The building was constructed using siliceous and calcareous pebbles, as a result of a shortage of natural stone in the region.
The amphitheatre's cavea was divided into three sections, the ima, media and summa cavea, separated by annular corridors called praecinctions. The first, the ima cavea, had 6 stands, with 8 access doors, and was reserved for a ruling class. The second, the media cavea, was intended for the humblest population, had 12 tiers and 14 access doors. The summa cavea, covered by an awning, was reserved only to children and women.
The amphitheatre also had several rooms dedicated to the cult of Nemesis and Juno.
References:Ehrenbreitstein Fortress was built as the backbone of the regional fortification system, Festung Koblenz, by Prussia between 1817 and 1832 and guarded the middle Rhine region, an area that had been invaded by French troops repeatedly before. The fortress was never attacked.
Early fortifications at the site can be dated back to about 1000 BC. At about AD 1000 Ehrenbert erected a castle. The Archbishops of Trier expanded it with a supporting castle Burg Helferstein and guarded the Holy Tunic in it from 1657 to 1794. Successive Archbishops used the castle's strategic importance to barter between contending powers; thus in 1672 at the outset of war between France and Germany the Archbishop refused requests both from the envoys of Louis XIV and from Brandenburg's Ambassador, Christoph Caspar von Blumenthal, to permit the passage of troops across the Rhine.