Museums: Palazzo Vecchio (Part 3 of 3)

In the last post, I said let's head down to the "basement" of the Palazzo Vecchio. 

The Palazzo Vecchio does have a cellar under part of the building.  Over time, the cellar has had different uses.

The "basement" in this instance is actually the ruins of a 2,000 year old Roman theater, which are located beneath the cellar.  Part of the Palazzo Vecchio was built atop the ruins of the theater.  Over time, those ruins have been carefully excavated and studied.  Today, you can actually tour the excavation site. We recently walked the scaffolding over the ruins and were amazed at what we saw:  ancient walkways and streets, arches, and wells, plus broken pots and amphora.  It was like traveling back in time in the Wayback machine.   Here are some photos from our time travels. 

The map above depicts the ancient Roman town of Florentia.  The red arrow marks the location of the Roman theater.  The oval to the right is the ancient Roman amphitheater which was located outside the walls of the city. 

The diagram above depicts the location of the semi-circular Roman theater in relation to the Palazzo Vecchio.  Much of the Palazzo Vecchio sits atop the ruins of the theater.   

Above is a rendering of the Roman theater if it still existed today. 

Below is another rendering of what the Roman theater might have looked like.  It you look closely, you can see the black outline of the Palazzo Vecchio standing where the theater once stood. 

Above is a rendering of the semi-circular Roman theater of ancient Florentia (middle top of the drawing).  Immediately behind the theater are the baths.  The theater originally held about 7,000 people and was later expanded to hold possibly twice as many.  In the foreground is an even larger venue, the amphitheater, which held about 20,000 people.

The ruins beneath the Palazzo Vecchio have been partially excavated, with scaffolding built over the ruins so visitors to walk over the ruins and look back in time. 

Photo of an excavation deep under the Palazzo Vecchio

An ancient well or cistern.

The diagram above shows the relative location in the theater of the excavation in the next photo.

This photo depicts a walkway in the theater under the seats of theater.  The walkway was large enough to allow fast, easy ingress and egress for the patrons.  In Latin, the walk was known as a "vomitorium", based on the word for spewing forth.  (A vomitorium is not a place where ancient Romans purged their meals.  That view is apparently based on a misinterpretation of an ancient manuscript.)

Excavation of a cache of broken pots and amphora.

Another ancient well or cistern.

Another excavated walkway in the theater.  The modern brick and concrete were added to prevent collapse of the ruins and the Palazzo Vecchio above. 

Some random hottie pointing out the danger of falling.

Thanks for joining us on our tour of the Palazzo Vecchio and on our trip back in time.