View of the outside of the Piazza dell'Anfiteatro in Lucca, Tuscany. The Piazza dell'Anfiteatro is a large elliptical shaped piazza built on the ruins
View of the outside of the Piazza dell'Anfiteatro in Lucca, Tuscany. The Piazza dell'Anfiteatro is a large elliptical shaped piazza built on the ruins of an ancient Roman amphitheatre. When it was built in the second century AD, the amphitheatre was an imposing structure with fifty-four arches and space for as many as ten thousand spectators. In the middle ages, it was fortified to withstand the forces of Narsete during the Gothic Wars. The amphitheatre then became housing with terraced houses being built on the surviving ruined structures, and other parts being used for construction materials. It then, over the years, became a powder magazine, a salt store, a prison and eventually shops and eating places with the inside of the arena crowded with small buildings. In the 1800's, an architect of Lucca, Lorenzo Nottolini, restored the value of the ancient space by demolishing the buildings inside the amphitheatre, creating a new urban space, and surrounding the ancient oval with the Via dell'Anfiteatro. It was initially used as the town's marketplace, but eventually it became an open piazza filled with shops, restaurants and housing. It is still possible to see traces of the old amphitheatre on both the exterior and the interior of the Piazza.
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Photo credit: © Arcaid / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
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Keywords: /, 15000000, 15050000, 15050004, amphitheatre, ancient, architectural, architecture, building, concept, concepts, conceptual, cultural, dellanfiteatro, edifice, edifices, europe, heritage, italy, lucca, piazza, roman, tuscany, vertical
