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Origin and history

The Roman theatre of Autun, built in the second half of the first century in Augustodunum (now Autun), was a monumental building of 148 metres in diameter, capable of hosting up to 14,000 spectators. Founded around -15 B.C., this Gaulish city, with an enclosure from the Upper Empire, also housed a nearby amphitheater. The theatre, backed by a hill to limit the work of masonry, followed the Roman model with a cellara of 41 steps, a semicircular orchestra and a scene today disappeared.

Abandoned in the fifth century after partial reuse, the monument served as a stone quarry in the Middle Ages. Rediscovered in the 19th and 20th centuries, it was restored in 1909 to regain its cultural vocation, then searched and consolidated between 1933 and 1938. Ranked in 1840 as one of the first Historical Monuments of France, it bears witness to Roman urban planning in Gaul, with its small-scale masonries and its internal circulation system (stairs, side corridors).

The date of the theatre, probably Flavian (69-96 A.D.), is based on archaeological evidence such as an ass of Claude found in an intact embankment. A second theatre, discovered in 1976 outside the city walls (site du Haut-du-Verger), suggests an exceptional monumental vocation for Augustodunum. This second building, hybrid between theatre and amphitheatre, was abandoned in the third century, unlike the intramural theatre, used until the fifth century.

Today, the Roman theatre of Autun combines heritage and modernity: its partially reconstituted stands host performances, perpetuating a tradition of two millennia old. Its stage design, including a curtain pit comparable to Lyon, and its summital portico make it a remarkable example of the architecture of ancient spectacle in Gaul.

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