The Mariani Theatre in Sant’Agata Feltria is a UNESCO World Heritage Site

Italy’s oldest wooden theatre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site: discover Sant’Agata Feltria

There is a wooden theatre – the oldest in Italy – where, in 1993, Vittorio Gassman performed *The Divine Comedy* for Rai and was utterly captivated by the experience: “a feeling we might compare to the joy of an archaeologist who discovers something he wasn’t looking for”. Today, that theatre is making history for an even greater reason.

 

The Mariani Theatre in Sant’Agata Feltria forms part of the ‘System of Italian-style communal theatres in central Italy between the 18th and 19th centuries’, which has just been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List during the 48th session of the Committee, currently meeting in Busan, in South Korea.

Not an isolated monument, but a serial site: 10 historic theatres across the Marche, Emilia-Romagna and Umbria regions, built between the 18th and 19th centuries by ‘condominium societies’ — agreements between public bodies and private families that financed the construction of the theatres. For two centuries, they were the beating heart of village life, the place where the community gathered and found a sense of belonging.

The Mariani, in particular, has spanned three centuries without losing its essence: wooden boxes, a square — Piazza Garibaldi — that seems frozen in time, and a village in the Rimini hinterland that is well worth a day trip all year round.
A slice of authentic Italy, now part of the world’s cultural heritage.

 

For visits and information:
Teatro Angelo Mariani – tel. (+39) 338 9213702 | (+39) 333 5739172
Sant’Agata Feltria Town Council – tel. 0541 929613