The theater of Orange

The theater of Orange is in the UNESCO World Heritage list with the following comment: "The ancient theatre of Orange, with its 103-m-long facade, is one of the best preserved of all the great Roman theatres" Note that this is not an amphitheater or arena, oval shaped, but a theater, half oval shaped, with a front wall. I have here only a few picture from the outside : we were going home from Marseille, we were two hours away from home, the visit lasts one hour and there had been a warning of heavy snow falls forecast in the afternoon on the autoroute ! So, we chose to leave the visit of the theater for another visit to Orange. The theater was restored from 1825 to 1856. In 1869, it was used for a Roman show. As it had a great success, shows were done later on a yearly basis and since 1902 the Chorégies d'Orange (visit their site) are organized with great success. Roman theaters are always built on the side of a hill, to make building the tiers easier, with a high wall that send the sounds from the stage towards the audience. The Orange theater is in good condition but is nevertheless in repair, as can be seen on the first photo of the front. It is the only building of its kind which still has its acoustic stage wall, whose size is quite impressive: 103 meters long, 37 meters high, 1.80 meters thick. The stage itself is 65 meters long, with optimally useful space of 47 meters. Depth varies between 12 and 16 meters.