By Nicolas Bard

Ancient Ambracia was a city-state of northwestern Greece, built on the banks of the Arachthos River, where the city of Arta is today.

The area of ​​Amvrakia was bonding north with the Kingdom of the Molossians of Epirus and east with the Athanasia tribe. According to Greek mythology, the city was built by Ambrax, the son of Thesprotos, though another version argues that the city was built by Ambracia, daughter of the King of Dryopians Melanea. The ancient writers called the area of ​​Ambracia as a Dryopida.

Ambracia had two theaters, one small and one large. The Grand Theater has not yet been identified, and is probably under the modern urban web of the city. But the apartment buildings that have risen in the area leave much room for further exploration …

However, the small theater had better luck, remained almost unhappy in the relentless passage of time and today we can admire it in the center of Arta. It was first excavated in 1976, after a short investigation on a plot on Ag. Constantine and on the occasion of the excavation of foundations for the construction of a new building. The excavations began again in 2011 and continued in the framework of the project “Work on the Establishment and Formation of the Archaeological Site of the Small Theater of Ancient Ambrakia” (2014-2020).

This is the smallest surviving ancient theater in Greece! It was found near Agios Constantine and is part of the administrative and religious center of ancient Ambracia, as the public buildings found in the surrounding area show.

One of the most important is the Late Archaic Temple of Apollo on Vasileos Pyrrou Street, the Grand Theater on Tsakalov Street and the Rector, which is kept down below the square and the church of Agia Theodora. In addition, part of the building web of the ancient city was found in the surrounding area of ​​the theater and a paved road.

It is worth mentioning, however, the most important of the mobile findings found during the excavation of the site, which was a golden stator of Philip II, the first gold coin ever found in excavations in Epirus!

The theater was not built on a natural hill, as they were used to in those years, but in a shameful sloping of the pebble mosaic band, dating back to the middle of the 4th century BC. century.

A strong retaining wall supports and delimits the theater to its east. The monument has been revealed part of the hollow and the hollows, the orchestra and the western part of the pillar of the foreground. The hollow, made of good quality limestone in the area, is run by two scales, dividing it into three stands with five rows of seats, and another series is possible. The docks were stone, while the absence of the presidency, that is, official seats in the first row, is noteworthy. Three rows of seats are preserved in the two side stands and in the central four. The orchestra is 6.70 meters in diameter, the foreground was a 10 -meter -long stone building, and its facade was adorned with six Ionic semi -hunters.

According to data so far, the small theater was built in the late 4th to the beginning of the 3rd century BC. That is, during the reign of Pyrrhus, when Ambracia was a great deal of heyday and became the capital of the kingdom.

Many centuries after its construction, it still captivates the visitors of Arta, who see this small but precious archaeological treasure between the modern apartment buildings of the city. It is one of Arta’s many historical ornaments, which still stand up and demonstrate the importance of the area, the rich history and the glorious past.

If you are in the area and decide to take a voyage to the city’s most important monuments, do not miss a stop at the Arta Archaeological Museum, which has great findings from ancient Ambracia and presents its history until the Roman years.