XVI Ivrea, Italy (Eporedia)

What3words – fairness.dramatic.bells

Visited March 2022

Status – Limited visual charm, interesting engineering

Construction Date -

Capacity -

The Aosta Valley is another well-defended invasion route between Italy and the alpine pass to the north. At a bridge point over the Fiume Dora Baltea stands Ivrea, a town stuffed with Roman and Medieval buildings and surrounded by farmland. It later became famous as the home of the Olivetti typewriter factory.

My initial impression of the amphitheatre was poor. It took a while to find as there are no signposts and I was locked out because I visited on a Sunday. The visible remains appear as  low walls in an area of grass, surrounded and partly built over with apartment blocks. A resourceful visit to a private car park with a climbable fence afforded a better view.

A look on an aerial photo provides a lot more information. The amphitheatre stood on raised ground to the north of what is now a canal or irrigation channel, which marks an old line of the meandering river separating the town from the flat fields to the south. As the site is fairly level the majority of the impressive oval structure would have been above ground, next to the main road and easy to recycle for building materials. What the aerial view reveals is a series of semi-circular walls inside and against the outer curtain wall on the south side. These added structural integrity to the side facing the river and prevented subsidence – The Romans developing piled foundations. The arena area also features a central pit and access tunnel which contained a scenery/wild beast lift. A technically sophisticated Amphitheatre. A shame there is so little left.