Philipp Peterer

Switzerland - 14-May-25 -

The historical theatres are currently scheduled for 2026, so it’s time for a deeper look. Here’s my “visitor” experience in 2025.

First of all, bad news for Tsunami and probably others who ticked it as visited: the nomination has since been reduced from 62 to 18 and Urbino is no longer among them. Also interesting is, that from the 18 theatres, 4 are actually not in the Marche region. Bagnacavallo and Sant’Agata Feltria are in Emilia-Romagna, Amelia and Spoleto in Umbria. Spoleto is now your best change for an accidental tick, in case you visited the city centre as well, while visiting the Longobards component of Basilica di San Salvatore.

Having family in Italy, I luckily saw two more places. My accidental visits (from the outside) include Bagnacavallo, Pesaro and Spoleto. During my last visit in May 2025 I set myself the goal to visit the interior of at least one of them. I did not succeed. The problem with these theatres is that they are still active theatres and not museums. Your safest option to see one from the inside would be to book a ticket for a play (in Italian, of course). I am not a big fan of plays, so I researched for guided tours.

Bagnacavallo
They post the dates for guided tours on  viviravenna.it, but only for the same month. There are usually 2 or 3 tours per month, so you need to be really lucky. I never got an answer to my e-mail request.

Pesaro
Pesaro was Capitale italiana della cultura in 2024 and they opened the theatre for regular guided tours in summer 2024. That is also all you will find, when you look for guided tours.

Fano
They seem to open the theatre every second weekend of the each month for the whole day (excluding the typical extended Italian lunch break).

Urbania
That one seemed to be the only one open for visits. It’s only 30mins from Urbino. But when I arrived there, the whole main square, that surrounds the theatre, was closed for restauration and the theatre not even approachable. Work set to be don in September 2025, but I would not count on that.

I hope, that if this becomes a WHS, these theatres make them properly accessible to visitors, not just theatre crowd. Currently it’s a real hassle.

Tsunami

Japan / USA / Europe - 18-Feb-22 -

I just noticed that this was a new nomination from Italy in 2021: Historical 62 theatres in the Marche Region. Yes, I've been to 1 of the 62 theaters! 

In 2012 when I visited Urbino, I saw Teatro Sanzio. In fact this theater is in the core zone of the Urbino WHS, right by Palazzo Ducale. The name Sanzio comes of course from Urbino's most famous son, painter Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino. 

Now, that was 2012, and I couldn't have put this theatre in the context with the other 61 theaters. It must be that Italy believes that these 62 theaters have something in common that is World Heritage worthy. 

The nomination document says things like: "the synergy that can establish with the historical centres, where they often are the hard core"; "The close identity relationship that binds them to local communities."  I also like the sentence: "The theatre, both in the form of an independent building and as a space hosted in the municipal building, became the paradigm of an era, the symbol of a society's cultural self-identification." Perhaps the role of theaters was similar to that of churches. Church to the religion, theater to the arts.  

In the photo the large building in the background is the Palazzo Ducale. In front of it in the center is Teatro Sanzio, seen from the back. The round structure connected at the back of the theater is another interesting historical landmark in Urbino, Rampa Elicoidale. 

Within the next several years I anticipate to see another one of the 62 theaters, Teatro Rossini in Pesaro. This theater is where the annual Rossini Opera Festival takes place, as Pesaro is where Gioachino Rossini was born.  His name is even mentioned under Criterion 6 in the nomination document. I have been waiting for the festival's next staging of Rossini's "La Gazza Ladra." They stage it every several years, and the last time was 2015, so it should be restaged soon. At that time I should be able to compare Teatro Sanzio with Teatro Rossini. The comic opera would be a tragedy if the venue changes. 

Read more from Tsunami here.