Teatro Antico di Taormina
Ancient Theatre of Taormina (Teatro antico di Taormina) is a 3rd-century BC Hellenistic theatre located in Sicily, Italy, renowned as the second-largest in the region after Syracuse and celebrated for its horseshoe shape and dramatic views of Mount Etna and the Ionian Sea.
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Teatro Antico di Taormina is a 3rd-century BC Hellenistic theatre, set above the town with dramatic views towards Mount Etna and the Ionian Sea. It is regarded as the second-largest ancient theatre in Sicily after Syracuse, and remains one of Taormina’s defining sights.
With a diameter of 107 metres, the theatre could accommodate around 10,000 spectators. Its horseshoe-shaped cavea is divided into nine sections, an architectural form that distinguishes it from the older trapezoidal design and places it among the earliest theatres in Magna Graecia to adopt a curved auditorium. A basilica stood on either side of the skene.
The setting gives the theatre an unusual sense of openness: ancient stone, distant volcano and sea are held together in a single view. The site continues to serve as a cultural venue, including for the annual Taormina Film Festival.
Its atmospheric stage has also made it familiar beyond the world of archaeology. The theatre features prominently in Woody Allen’s 1995 film Mighty Aphrodite, where F. Murray Abraham appears repeatedly as the leader of a Greek chorus, and it is featured in the second season of HBO’s The White Lotus (2023).
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Address
Via Teatro Greco, 1, 98039 Taormina ME, Italy
