If you happen to stop on the French Autoroute du Soleil on Black Saturday, just before the junction towards either the Côte d’Azur or Montpellier, turn off the road: you will then be near Orange. There is the best preserved theater from Roman antiquity, which is more than worth a visit even without traffic jams. Anyone who has passed the toll booths after leaving the highway can easily drive into the city. Once in the city center it is not difficult to find your way. The center is compact, well-organized and meets the expectations of a southern French town: lively, lots of good food and pleasantly located terraces. The impressive Roman theater is located on the south side of the center. You enter the Roman colossus from the Rue Madeleine Roche, which immediately offers a view of the enormous outer wall of the theater, described by King Louis XIV as ‘The most beautiful wall in my kingdom’ . Audio tours are also available at the visitor center where you buy the tickets.
The theater
It has been determined that the theater must have been built at the end of the first century AD. Although the theater has suffered the ravages of time, it remains one of the most impressive buildings of Roman antiquity. The most sensational feature is the wall of the theater, which is 103 meters long and 37 meters high above the stage. In the niche in the middle is a statue of Emperor Augustus, no less than 3.5 meters high. This statue was thought lost for a long time, but was recovered during excavations in the early 1930s.
The theater wall
The wall above the stage appears to be divided into five floors. The first three of these are decorated with open or closed niches. The ground floor has three entrances with a royal gate in the middle, surmounted by the aforementioned statue. When one sees the remains of the carved decorations or the marble columns on either side of the niches and the gates, one can only partially imagine how richly decorated this theater must once have been. On the upper floors are the protruding stones between which masts were inserted that served as holders for the cloth that was to provide shade for the spectators. On the sides are the parascenia, rooms for the accessories, where the actors could wait until they could appear.
The stage and the cavea
The stage under the stone emperor extends over a length of 61 meters and a depth of 13 meters. It was bordered by a small wall of which only a few remains remain and which was supposed to provide the whole with better acoustics. Opposite the stage were the stands, the cavea , where the spectators were located. Between the stage and the cavea was the orchestra , where Roman notables sat on movable chairs. However, this space could also be used for performances. The cavea could be divided into three sections
- Ima cavea , the bottom rows, the best seats in the theater. In Orange these places sometimes still bear inscriptions.
- Media cavea , the middle section of the stand
- Summa cavea , the highest seats, here were the lowest positions.
In total, the stone stand, built on the flank of Saint Eutrope hill, could seat 9,000 people. The theater is still in use.
Walk around this historic building and soak up 2,000 years of history. Climb the cavea and walk through the cool corridors that run under the seats. Imagine yourself as a Roman resident of Orange from 150 AD. A visit to this Roman theater is an experience for young and old.
- Remains of this city’s Roman past can also be found elsewhere in Orange. For example, on the other side of the center, on the ancient Via Aurelia, there is a triumphal arch. Closer to the theater are the ruins of a gymnasium and a capitol.
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