Roman theatre of Verona

Is it worth the trip?

Yes, if you are in Verona: it is a short walk from the old town and the ticket includes the museum, whose top floor is laid out as an introduction to Roman Verona, its houses, cemeteries and public buildings (it.wikipedia). The setting does a great deal of the work, a hillside of terraces and cypresses facing the river and the Ponte Pietra.

Know what you are looking at. Most of the steps you sit on were put back in the 20th century, the stage building is a low ruin, and through the summer a modern stage and rows of seating stand in the theatre for the Estate Teatrale Veronese, a Shakespeare festival that has run every year since 1948 (the operator; it.wikipedia). In 2026 the stage went up from the end of March, and the operator notes that the visitor route changes while it is being built. The museum can only be reached by climbing the seating, so visitors who cannot manage steps see the theatre but not the museum.

Getting there and what it costs

The entrance is at Regaste Redentore 2, beside the Ponte Pietra (the operator), about 130 m from the bridge, 600 m from Piazza delle Erbe and 1.1 km from the Arena (distances from the sites’ points). The nearest bus stop, Santo Stefano / Ponte Pietra, is about 200 m away and is reached by city bus from Verona Porta Nuova station (the operator; OpenStreetMap). Drivers will find a paid car park in Piazza Martiri della Libertà, about 90 m from the theatre, with a space for disabled drivers next to the entrance; the museum lies outside the limited-traffic zone (the operator; OpenStreetMap). The entrance to the theatre is up a ramp. A funicular to Castel San Pietro leaves about 150 m away (OpenStreetMap).

The theatre and museum are open Tuesday to Sunday, 10.00–18.00, with last entry at 17.30, and closed on Mondays. A ticket is €9; groups of 15 or more, over-65s and holders of the Veneto MyCARD pay €6, and 18–25-year-olds from the EU and a few other countries €2. Under-18s (under-14s only with an adult), disabled visitors and one companion, and VeronaCard holders go free. On the first Sunday of the month from November to March entry is €1 (Musei Civici di Verona, read 18 October 2026). Since the city’s ticketing changed hands on 1 October 2026, its only official online ticket office is verona.coopculture.it; tickets are also sold at the museum entrance.

History

When Roman Verona was laid out inside the bend of the Adige, the Colle San Pietro across the river, the site of the prehistoric Venetic settlement, was freed for a monumental scheme, and the theatre was part of it: a stage on the riverbank, terraces climbing above it and a temple on the summit, facing the new town (it.wikipedia). Before building began, embankment walls were raised along the river between the Ponte Pietra and the Ponte Postumio to protect the site from floods; they also gave the theatre a foundation and carried the road between the two bridges (it.wikipedia; en.wikipedia). The work went on for decades, the terraces and the temple coming last (it.wikipedia). The river front had half-columns of a different order on each floor: Tuscan below, Ionic above, and pilasters with richly carved capitals at the top (it.wikipedia).

The theatre fell out of use in the Middle Ages. From at least the 10th century houses and churches were built over it (the operator), until a whole quarter stood on its substructures, reached by the theatre’s old entrances and stairways, while the seating was farmed (it.wikipedia). The church of San Siro, built in the 10th century and restored in the 14th, took up part of the seating (en.wikipedia). Giovanni Caroto and Andrea Palladio drew reconstructions of it in the 16th century (it.wikipedia). The first clearance, in 1757, was the work of abbé Fontana (fr.wikipedia), of the family that lived in Palazzo Fontana in the 18th century and dug at the theatre (it.wikipedia).

The theatre owes its return to Andrea Monga (1794–1861), a wealthy merchant who bought the whole area (the operator). Between 1834 and 1844 he had some thirty houses pulled down and uncovered the two side stairways, part of the seating and the drainage channel (it.wikipedia). The city bought the site from his heirs in 1904 and dug on until 1914, clearing the whole of the seating and setting the ten arches of the gallery back up; the archaeological museum, founded in 1924, moved into the convent, the scene pit was excavated in the 1930s, and the last works, in 1970–1971, found a gallery under the stage (it.wikipedia). The museum was restored and its displays renewed between 2013 and 2016 (it.wikipedia).