MARCELLUS THEATER

TEATRO MARCELLO
Via del Teatro Marcello

Begun by Julius Caesar and finished by Augustus (27 BC/14)

Probably completed in 17 BC when it was used for the so called secular games, but the dedication took place only in 13 or in 11 BC, when it was named after Marcellus (42/23 BC), nephew and son-in-law of Augustus who died at age 19
Marcellus was the son of Augustus' sister, Octavia, and the husband of the daughter of Augustus, Giulia

The theater was built on the site where the provisional theater used to be erected in the Republican period

In order to build the theater two temples were destroyed, maybe the TEMPLE OF PIETAS and the TEMPLE OF DIANA later reconstructed at the center of a large exedra behind the stage

In 23 BC Vespasian (69/79) restored the stage

Capacity of about 15,000/20,000 spectators
Originally the height was about 32.60 m (107 feet), the current height is about 20 m (65 feet)

Palazzo Orsini Savelli

Orsini Savelli Palace

Structure built above the Theater of Marcellus since the Middle Ages for the Pierleoni family, Jews converted to Christianity, one of whom became antipope with the name of Anacleto II (1131/38) in opposition to Innocent II Papareschi (1130/1143)

This happened during the period of the turf war between the Pierleoni and the Frangipane families, the most powerful ones in Rome at the time

The presence here of the Pierleonis was perhaps the reason why many Jews were forced to move from the Trastevere neighborhood to this area, which later became the Jewish Ghetto

Current building 1523/27 by Baldassare Peruzzi (1481/1536) for the Savelli family. The line of the family ended in the eighteenth century
The palace was sold to the Orsini family in 1716 and it was finally divided into luxury apartments