Roman Theatre of Mérida

Emerita Augusta was founded in 25 BC by Augustus to settle veteran legionaries—its name means 'retired soldiers'—and became capital of Roman Lusitania. Around 15 BC his son-in-law Agrippa financed a grand theatre seating roughly 6,000, its stage backed by a towering two-storey colonnade of marble columns and statues. Buried for centuries and thought merely to be 'the Seven Chairs,' it was excavated from 1910. Beside it lie an amphitheatre, a circus, temples, bridges and an aqueduct—the richest Roman ensemble in Spain. Since 1933 the Mérida Classical Theatre Festival has staged Greek and Roman plays on the original stone stage each summer.