Roman amphitheatre of Lucera

Is it worth the trip?

Not right now. While it is closed, a trip made for the amphitheatre alone ends at the gate, and local press reports that on ordinary days the arena can be seen only through the bars of the entrance gate. The exceptions are the evening events the town allows in the arena (Luceraweb).

Once it reopens, it is worth a stop if you are in Lucera anyway. It is an early amphitheatre, counted among the oldest in southern Italy (it.wikipedia), the portals still carry the builder’s inscription, and the ticket costs €3. Just remember that much of what you see was reassembled in the twentieth century, and is not a ruin left as it was found.

Getting there

The entrance is at the far end of Viale Augusto. Coming by car on the SS 17 you can reach it without driving through the town. Turn right at the first roundabout into the town, onto Via delle Porte Antiche, then follow Viale Giovanni Paolo II to the amphitheatre at its end. From the town centre the one-way route is Via Aldo Moro, Via Napoleone Battaglia and then Viale Augusto (the Comune). A bus stop, “L4 viale Augusto 99 (Anfiteatro)”, is mapped about 200 metres away (OpenStreetMap).

The Ministry of Culture’s page lists a full ticket at €3 and a reduced one at €1. University students and groups of more than 25 pay €2. When the site is open, the ticket office keeps 09.00–16.30 from Tuesday to Sunday and is closed on Mondays. That page was read on 22 October 2026 and was last updated in December 2025. Before travelling, check with the town’s tourist office on 0881 541662 (the Comune).

History

After the Roman conquest in 314 BC, Luceria became a colony with Latin rights and later a municipium. It had its most prosperous period under Augustus, when the town gained many new public buildings (it.wikipedia). The amphitheatre was one of them, built between 27 BC and AD 14 (the Ministry of Culture). Marcus Vecilius Campus was a duumvir of the town, a military tribune and prefect of the engineers. He built it on his own land and at his own cost, and dedicated it to Augustus and to the colony (it.wikipedia; the Comune). Augustus received the title Pater Patriae in 2 BC. The inscription does not use it, which suggests the building was opened before then (fr.wikipedia). It was built over an existing quarter of the Republican town, with houses and workshops on a wide street, which were demolished to make room for it (FAI).

It was rebuilt in places, in brick, by the end of the 1st century AD or early in the 2nd (the Ministry of Culture). The three pits under the arena are lined with brick, unlike the original building, and may date from this phase. What they were for is debated. Jean-Pierre Golvin reads them as part of a system for flooding the arena with a thin layer of water for aquatic shows. The Italian archaeologist Franco Schettini thought they were service rooms that held lifts (fr.wikipedia). The Comune’s text says they held services, animals and stage machinery.

The building was in decline by the 3rd century AD and was used as a quarry (FAI). It was probably damaged when the emperor Constans II took the town in 663, and afterwards it gradually silted up (it.wikipedia). The first significant remains came to light on 13 October 1932. The excavation was directed first by Quintino Quagliati and then by Renato Bartoccini (it.wikipedia). Published dates for the end of the restoration differ between 1945 and 1948. In 2016, 23,619 people voted for the amphitheatre in FAI’s “I Luoghi del Cuore” census. The vote let the town enter FAI’s funding call, and a project it submitted received €27,000 from FAI and the bank Intesa Sanpaolo, topped up by the town; the work was presented in March 2022 (FAI). In February 2025 the mayor closed the amphitheatre so that a larger urban-regeneration project could begin work on the arena and the galleries beneath it (Lucera by Night).