The oldest perspective stage set in the world
The Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza is the oldest surviving indoor theatre in the world, and the last masterpiece of Andrea Palladio. It was commissioned by the Accademia Olimpica, a cultural association of which Palladio was a member, and designed by him in 1580, inspired by the theatres of ancient Rome described by Vitruvius. Palladio died a few months after the start of the works, which were completed by his pupil Vincenzo Scamozzi. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 March 1585 with Sophocles' Oedipus Rex.
The auditorium is a semi-elliptical tier of wooden steps, crowned by a colonnade with statues, under a ceiling painted as an open sky. Facing it, the scaenae frons, the stage façade, is a monumental architecture of wood and stucco in two orders, with statues of the academicians in the guise of ancient Romans. Through its five openings you see the theatre's most astonishing feature: Scamozzi's perspective scenery of the seven streets of the city of Thebes, built in wood and stucco with a sharply rising floor and decreasing buildings that create the illusion of streets dozens of metres long, in reality only a few metres deep. Built for the first performance, it has never been removed.
Tip: the theatre still hosts concerts and classical drama, especially in the autumn season; attending a performance is unforgettable.
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