4/5 Muhammad A. 1 year ago on Google • 167 reviews
Antique
Theater
is
located
at
the
foot
of
the
eastern
slope
of
the
higher
Ohrid
hill,
under
Samuel's
Fortress,
near
one
of
the
main
entrances
to
the
fortified
city-the
Upper
Gate,
from
where
one
captures
the
unforgettable
view
of
the
lake
and
the
mountains
that
surround
it.
It
was
built
more
than
two
millennia,
sometime
at
the
end
of
3rd
or
the
beginning
of
2nd
century
during
the
late
Hellenism
and
was
intended
for
plays,
musical
and
poetry
performances
for
the
lovers
of
theater
art.
It
was
built
the
according
to
the
look
of
the
famous
Greek
stone
buildings
of
this
kind,
with
rich
architectural
decoration,
especially
on
the
theater
building
which
was
decorated
with
a
frieze
of
bas-relief
tablets
with
carved
scenes
from
the
life
of
the
gods.
Two
such
marble
slabs,
which
are
today
kept
in
the
Ohrid
Museum,
present
the
god
Dionysus
in
the
company
of
the
Muses.
Some
of
the
contemporary
urban
notables
had
prepaid
their
own
seats
in
the
theater
and
so
today
we
learn
about
Crispus
and
Topos
as
big
fans
of
the
theater
art
because
their
names
still
stand
carved
in
stone
blocks
of
the
seats.
Immediately
after
the
Roman
conquest
of
this
region
in
148
BC,
the
theater,
probably
in
a
remarkably
short
time,
was
adapted
to
the
needs
of
the
Roman
way
of
life.
The
building
was
transformed
into
a
theater
space
with
arena
for
gladiatorial
fights
and
fights
with
wild
beasts
for
which
few
of
the
lower
rows
of
seats
were
demolished
and
in
their
place
were
built
several
cages
for
animals,
and
the
orchestra
and
honorary
seats
were
surrounded
by
a
protective
wall.
Later
in
the
upper,
outer
zone
was
built
epiteatron
and
the
capacity
of
the
theater
rose
to
5.000
spectators.
It
is
thought
that
with
the
euphoria
that
occurred
at
the
beginning
of
the
4th
century
AD,
when
St.
Erasmus
from
Antioch,
the
first
Christian
missionary
arrived
in
Ohrid,
converted
to
Christianity
25,000
people,
all
pagan
buildings
in
the
city
were
destroyed.
Most
probably
in
these
demolitions
suffered
and
the
theater,
while
the
material
of
its
seats
and
other
objects
later
was
used
for
building
early
Christian
basilicas
and
many
other
sacred
and
profane
objects.
The
first
assumptions
that
in
ancient
Lychnidos
(today
Ohrid)
existed
theater,
gave
Russian
art
historian
Nikodim
P.
Kondakov
at
the
beginning
of
20th
century,
and
already
in
1935,
when
the
first
archaeological
excavations
have
been
performed,
those
assumptions
were
confirmed
and
the
theater
was
partly
uncovered.
Later,
during
the
excavations
carried
out
in
the
period
1959-1960,
was
determined
the
exact
location
and
size
of
the
theater.
The
systematic
excavations,
started
in
1977
and
after
a
lapse
of
six
years
continued
in
1984,
discovered
the
locations
of
the
entrances
and
the
theater
building,
the
orchestra
with
the
honorary
seats
and
the
arena
and
nine
rows
of
seats
were
uncovered.
During
1999,
the
project
for
its
full
uncovering
and
revitalization
and
since
2001,
after
twenty
centuries,
theatrical,
musical
performances
and
various
other
events
are
performed
on
the
stage
of
the
reconstructed
open
space
of
the
ancient
theater.
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