Photo : Benh LIEU SONG (Flickr) / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Théâtre antique d'Orange
The ancient theatre of Orange, in Vaucluse, was built under the reign of Augustus by veterans of Caesar's Second Legion. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1981 and remains one of the best-preserved Roman theatres.
Its outer wall is about 103 metres long and 37 metres high, and the stage wall about 35 metres. The stage is 61 metres wide and the 34 rows of seats could hold about 9,000 spectators. In the central niche of the stage wall stands a colossal statue of 3.5 metres, traditionally identified as Augustus. The brackets that supported the velum, a huge canvas stretched above the seats, can still be seen there.
Closed in 391, the theatre survived the Middle Ages, when the princes of Orange integrated the stage building into a fortified position. Its restoration began around 1823 and continued in the twentieth century. Since 1869, it has hosted the Chorégies d'Orange, an opera festival.
