Roman Theatre of Málaga

Augustus, the Baths Underneath and Two Centuries of Use

The Junta's enclave page dates the theatre to the early first century AD, in the reign of Augustus, and records that it was built partly over thermal baths of the Republican period. It followed the plan Vitruvius set down: a semicircular cavea of tiered seating cut into the slope of the hill, an orchestra floored with marble slabs, and a raised stage, the scaena, whose reconstructed front still carries traces of paint. The Spanish tourism office gives the dimensions: a radius of 31 metres, a height of 16 metres and an orchestra 15 metres across, with three tiers of seats reached through vaulted passages, the vomitoria.

It was in use for roughly two centuries and, on the Junta's account, definitively abandoned in the middle of the third century.

Salting Vats, Burials and the Alcazaba's Quarry

What happened next explains the glass pyramid on the street. The building was turned into a works for salted fish and the fish sauces of the Roman table, and from the fifth century the site was also used for burials. The salting vats found under Calle Alcazabilla are what the pyramid displays.

Under the emirs the theatre became a quarry: the Ayuntamiento's own page on the fortress says the two columns and capitals in the Alcazaba's Puerta de las Columnas came from here, and the shafts you see in the second gate on the climb are the theatre's. By the eighteenth century the whole structure was under ground and gardens.

1951, the Casa de la Cultura and the Long Excavation

The theatre was found in 1951 during landscaping work beside the Casa de la Cultura, a cultural centre that had been built on top of it. Decades of partial excavation followed with the building still standing over the stage, until the Casa de la Cultura was demolished to free the site. The World Monuments Fund puts that demolition in 1994.

In 1999 the Fund, Fundación Unicaja, Autopista del Sol and the Spanish Ministry of Culture funded conservation, with grants that restored the southern entrance, which had been judged unsafe after 1984. The Junta's page says the enclave opened to the public after full restoration. It prints no opening year, and this guide does not invent one.

The finds from the dig are in the Museo de Málaga two minutes away.

The Glass Pyramid and the Terrace on Calle Alcazabilla

Before you go in, look down. The glass pyramid on the pavement is a viewing platform over the remains of the Roman salting vats, the industrial afterlife of the theatre, and the Junta's page names it as part of the enclave. Beside it the street terrace looks straight down into the cavea, which is why every guided walk of the city stops here whether or not it enters: from this railing you see the whole semicircle, the orchestra and the stage, and on a Monday it is the only view you get.

The tuk-tuk and bike tours treat it as a photo stop for the same reason.

Inside: the Interpretation Centre, the Seats and the Orchestra

The entrance is the modern glass building on Calle Alcazabilla, which houses the interpretation centre: a short exhibition on the theatre's construction and afterlife, with the finds explained before you step out onto the site. The route then follows the top of the cavea, the three tiers of seats and the vomitoria, down to the orchestra with its marble paving and the reconstructed stage front. The seating is the place to stop, because it gives the one view that makes sense of the place: the stage below, and the Alcazaba's walls climbing straight up behind it out of the same hillside.

Twenty to thirty minutes covers it. The Junta publishes no visit length.

Events on the Stage

The theatre is used again. Performances are staged on the reconstructed scaena, and the venue appears on event-ticketing platforms. The Junta's page does not print a season, so dates come from the city's agenda rather than from this guide.

The city's festival calendar, including the August Feria and Semana Santa, is on events in Málaga.

Tuesday to Saturday 10:00 to 18:00. Sundays and public holidays 10:00 to 16:00. Closed every Monday and on 1 and 6 January, 1 May and 24, 25 and 31 December, with other holidays to be checked by email. Visitors are not admitted in the last 30 minutes before closing, and access is limited by capacity for the safety of visitors and of the structure, in the Junta's words, so on a free Sunday afternoon in summer there can be a short queue at the door. No ticket exists and no booking is possible for a free visit. Guided visits are by reservation, recommended, on 951 501 115 or 671 539 212 or by email to [email protected], with no fee printed.

The two timetables on this hill trap people every week. The theatre closes at 18:00 and the Alcazaba at 20:00 in summer, so the order is theatre first. On a Sunday the theatre shuts at 16:00, two hours after the fortress goes free at 14:00, so the free-Sunday plan is theatre at 14:00 and the gate at 15:30. On a Monday the theatre is closed and the fortress is open, and the terrace above the cavea is the substitute. The Junta's Museo de Málaga two minutes away is closed on Mondays too. The city's whole Monday picture is on Sunday and Monday openings.

• Animals: only assistance dogs for people with disabilities. All other animals prohibited
• Photography and filming: the Junta's page says authorisation is required for filming. Casual photographs are taken by every visitor and nothing on site stops them
• Accessibility: the Junta publishes nothing beyond the assistance-dog rule. The route down the cavea is stepped stone
• Toilets, café, cloakroom: none listed on the official page. Calle Alcazabilla has cafés along its length

The theatre is the smallest of the three sites on the hill and the only free one, which is why it is the one to fit in first rather than last.

The theatre is on Calle Alcazabilla, a pedestrian street at the eastern edge of the old town, about 300 metres from the Cathedral along Calle Císter and three minutes from the Picasso Museum on Calle San Agustín. From María Zambrano station it is about 25 minutes on foot through the centre, our estimate. The two guided walks meet at the glass pyramid and at Plaza de la Aduana respectively, both within sight of the door.

EMT bus 35 to Gibralfaro passes along the Paseo del Parque two minutes below. Fares and lines are on getting around Málaga. No parking is published for the enclave and the street is closed to cars.

Be at the glass building for 10:00 on any day but Monday, spend half an hour on the seats and in the interpretation centre, and walk next door into the Alcazaba before eleven, when the guided groups arrive. The combined ticket then takes you up to Gibralfaro Castle and bus 35 brings you down for lunch. On a Sunday, start here at 14:00 and enter the fortress free from 15:30.

This is the first hour of Málaga in one day, the Picasso Museum three minutes away is the afternoon, and the trip as a whole starts from the Málaga guide homepage.