Castel d'Ario Castle was a strategic element of a defensive system into the Mantuan territory, together with Castelbelforte and Villimpenta Castles, placed on the borderline with Veneto.
Castel D'Ario Castle represents one of the main medieval fenced-in castles with a pentagonal shape. Five towers are visible, included that one at the entrance, where people can still see the location where there was a portcullis and the ruins of the opposite ravelin. A significant restoration of the praetorian Palace at the end of the 20th century has brought to life frescos at the walls of the first floor, with the escutcheons of the Scaligeris, the lords from Verona, owners of the Castle for twenty years in the second half of the 14th century.
One of the towers inside the castle is called Torre della Fame; the tower was called like this because in the middle of the 19th century some skeletons were found out in this place; probably they belonged to members of Pico della Mirandola and Bonacolsi families, locked up and starved here. A headstone on the castle door reminds to this event.
References:The ancient Argos Theater was built in 320 BC. and is located in Argos, Greece against Larissa Hill. Nearby from this site is Agora, Roman Odeon, and the Baths of Argos. The theater is one of the largest architectural developments in Greece and was renovated in ca 120 AD.
The Hellenistic theater at Argos is cut into the hillside of the Larisa, with 90 steps up a steep incline, forming a narrow rectilinear cavea. Among the largest theaters in Greece, it held about 20,000 spectators and is divided by two landings into three horizontal sections. Staircases further divide the cavea into four cunei, corresponding to the tribes of Argos A high wall was erected to prevent unauthorized access into the theatron and may have helped the acoustics, but it is said the sound quality is still very good today.
Around 120 CE, both theaters were renovated in the Roman style.