Cartagena Roman Theatre Museum

A Theatre Nobody Remembered

There was no written or archaeological record that Cartagena had a Roman theatre. It came to light when the site of the former mansion of the Countess of Peralta, in the upper district, was excavated, and in 1990 it was identified as such; the building that was to be built there was moved elsewhere. It dates from the end of the 1st century BC, the age of Augustus, when the city was already a colony with the name Urbs Iulia Nova Carthago, and it held about 7,000 spectators in three sectors of seating, with the cavea partly cut into the rock of the hill. A fire in the 3rd century left it abandoned; on top of it there later stood a market, a Byzantine quarter, Muslim-era houses and, in the 18th and 19th centuries, a poor district. Recovery began in 1996.

Moneo's Route, from Bottom to Top

The museum, designed by Rafael Moneo, is part of the visit. You enter through the Pascual de Riquelme palace and go down to the corridor of history, which passes under the street and goes back from the 21st century to the 1st century BC with objects from the excavations. Room 1 is built at the height of the first floor of the stage and shows Corinthian capitals and bases of Carrara marble, columns of pink Mula travertine and the togate statue of Augustus found on the Molinete hill. Room 2 tells what role the theatre played in the city: the lintels dedicated to Gaius and Lucius Caesar, the grandsons of Augustus, and three altars with the symbols of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva. Then an archaeological corridor passes under the 13th-century church of Santa María la Vieja, built over the theatre, with a Roman house with a mosaic. And you emerge into the cavea, with the stage in front of you.

Hours, Price and Guided Visit

From 1 October to 30 April it opens Tuesday to Saturday from 10:00 to 18:00 and Sundays from 10:00 to 14:00. From 1 May to 30 September, Tuesday to Saturday it closes at 20:00 and on Sunday it still closes at 14:00. At Easter it also opens on Monday, and that Monday and Easter Sunday, from 10:00 to 18:00. The rest of the year, it is closed on Mondays. The last entry is a quarter of an hour before closing.

Admission costs €7 and €6 reduced, for under-12s, students up to 25, pensioners, the unemployed, people with disabilities, families of two adults with two children under 12 and groups of 20; children under 3 do not pay. On Tuesdays, in the last two hours, it is free if you get the ticket at the ticket office. The guided visit, an hour long and in Spanish, is included in the ticket: Tuesday to Saturday at 10:30, 11:30, 12:30 and, in low season, at 16:00; on Sundays, at 10:30, 11:30 and 12:30. The audioguide costs €2.50 in five languages.

The museum has escalators and a lift, lends wheelchairs and has accessible toilets, subtitled audiovisuals and sign-language videos. Beside the entrance there is a café-restaurant open to all.

Parking Outside the Old Town

It is in the old town, beside the Town Hall square and five minutes' walk from the harbour. Park in one of the underground car parks in the centre: within the old town there are pedestrian zones.