Fondazione Brescia Musei and the Municipality of Brescia have commissioned David Chipperfield Architects Milan to revive the Roman Theatre and create connections to the other components of the UNESCO corridor in the Lombardy City. The city of Brescia, which was founded by the Gauls over 3,000 years ago and contains some of the best-preserved Roman buildings in northern Italy, was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2011.
The Roman Theatre was built between 79 and 81AD during the Second Roman Imperial Dynasty and remodelled during the Fourth Roman Imperial Dynasty. It was damaged and destroyed in the following centuries yet, despite this, was used until around 1,000 AD. The theatre was rediscovered only recently when structures that were built on top of it were removed. Currently only the remains of the Cavea and the Scene are visible, and it remains difficult to read the original Roman geometry and shape.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the architect Giorgio Grassi developed a well-known Project of Restitution and Rehabilitation of the Theatre (after his interventions on the Roman Theatre in Sagunto), which was never implemented. The challenge of David Chipperfield Architects' assignment will be to continue the process of the liberation of the theatre balancing absence and presence, past and present, in a very delicate equilibrium.
Image Credit: Stanisław Kasprzysiak Architekt - Re-Composition Drawing Roman Theatre.