Roman Amphitheatre — Spectacle Beneath the Modern Square
Listen at the stop, then read the transcript and follow the sources behind the story.
Listen
Transcript
Only part of Lecce’s Roman amphitheatre is visible because the rest lies beneath the modern city. That incompleteness is the point. Ancient Lupiae did not disappear; later Lecce simply built across it.
The amphitheatre dates to the Roman imperial period and could hold many thousands of spectators for public entertainment. Its rediscovery accelerated in the early twentieth century, when demolition and excavation around Piazza Sant’Oronzo exposed the structure.
Standing here, resist the temptation to imagine archaeology as finding an untouched object. Excavating a living city means choosing what to reveal and what must remain under streets and buildings. The visible arena is therefore both a Roman monument and a modern decision about how much of the past can occupy the present.