Amphitheater of Pula

The outer walls of the arena are built of limestone and have a height of 29.4 m. On the first two floors are rows with 72 arches, and on the top floor there are 64 rectangular openings. The size of the axes of the ellipse of the amphitheater is 132.45 and 105.1 m.

The capacity of the building, during its active use, was 23 thousand people. The stands were located on a slope to the arena itself, which was 67.95 m × 41.65 m in size. From the public, this area was fenced with iron bars. The main entertainment of the audience was the fighting of gladiators and the persecution of wild animals. Under the arena were several underground passages that connected the cells and the scene itself. Sometimes a velarium (large sail) was installed over the structure, protecting people from the sun and rain.

The arena was built in the 1st century BC. e., at a time when Pula was a fairly large city of the Roman Empire . Initially, it was located outside the city walls along the Flavia road . In 2-14 years under the emperor Augustus , the amphitheater was wooden, and only during the reign of Claudius was rebuilt and became stone. In 79, the arena was expanded in order to host gladiatorial battles.

In the V century, Emperor Honorius banned gladiatorial battles, and from this time began to decline in interest in the structure. From the same century, the gradual looting and destruction of the amphitheater by the locals begins, ceased only by decree of the Patriarch of Aquileia in the 13th century . In the Middle Ages, the arena was used for grazing livestock, fairs and jousting. In 1583, the Senate of Venice proposed dismantling the building and transporting it to its city, but this idea was rejected. P. A. Tolstoy , who visited Pula in 1697, wrote in his diary ^[1] :

“The city of Fields is on the edge of the sea; the structure in it is all stone; in that city there is a Greek law church. Near that city, I saw a stone building for some old years, it was surprisingly dignified, it was rounded by a view, with majesty around 177 fathoms, its height is much higher, it has three windows in height, which are found on that building with more than 300 windows. They say that the building was built in some ancient Roman caesar in ancient times in order to have poisonous animals locked in that building: lions, and parduses , and babrses , and other genera of many kinds. And when in the power of that caesar whose man was worthy of death, that man was swept into that building above to be torn to pieces by animals, and, looking from the wall of that building, that caesar was amused by that.

At the beginning of the XIX century , the arena was reconstructed under the leadership of the architect Pietro Nobile and the patronage of the Austrian Emperor Franz I. In 1932, the amphitheater was converted for theatrical productions, military ceremonies, parades and various public events. The number of seats for the audience was 5 thousand.

The Pula Amphitheater is depicted on the back of a banknote with a face value of 10 kunas , sample 1993, 1995, 2001 and 2004.

• Grove Dictionary of Art , Oxford University Press, USA. New Ed edition, January 2, 1996. ISBN 0-19-517068-7 .
• Mlakar, Stefan, The Amphitheater in Pula, The Archaeological Museum of Istra, 1957.

• Archaeological Museum of Istria
• Details of the Ancient Roman Amphitheater in Pula on istriya.ru