Raffaello Sanzio Theater Urbino

It was dismantled after the coming into operation of the new theater, built between 1840 and 1853, the area above the fifteenth century tower that dominates the area of Mercatale and contains the famous Rampa di Francesco di Giorgio Martini, which changed significantly the urban landscape with its mole below of the turrets at Palazzo Ducale.
The construction of the theater came alongside a real town planning, designed by Vincenzo Ghinelli from Senigallia, a true expert (as was the 'uncle' Pietro Ghinelli) of buildings who, then, had just completed in a few months, the reconstruction of the theater of Senigallia, destroyed by fire in 1838.
It is known that Ghinelli presented his project in competition with another prepared by the Venetian Giambattista Meduna, then really well known for having planned and directed (along with his brother Tommaso) the reconstruction of the Teatro La Fenice in Venice after ' fire in 1836 destroyed the previous room by Giannantonio Selva.
What determined the victory of Ghinelli depended not only on building design stage, however,( influenced by the limited area available), was the general draft renewal of the surrounding area, a real development plan, which includes the semicircular forecourt ,The front facade of the theater, the long porch of Corso Garibaldi up to the new Palazzo Albani by Pietro Ghinelli and, on the other side, the reorganized public garden of the steep escarpment of the Pincio.
The facade, made entirely of brick ,with bricks are cut and shaped so as to create sleek frames and stripes and, in the middle, with six Doric half-columns and entablature above a second floor wing with windows closer to the bezel and two sphinxes in stone, a typical signature of the creation in the late neoclassicism of which Ghinelli was a faithful follower and which has left the most impressive examples in Cesena theater, opened in 1846.
As for the Hall, rather than for the traditional horseshoe-shaped arrangement of three rows of boxes (56 in total) and the above gallery, it is to be remembered for the surviving paintings by Raffaele Antonioli .
The decorations of the balustrades strip of boxes are lost: decorations that contained nineteen rounds with effigies of famous people, first of all Raffaello Sanzio in which the theater had been and still is dedicated. These decorations have been removed (the nineteen rounds mentioned above) during the last renovation, completed in 1982 by architect Giancarlo De Carlo: restructuring has also led to a radical change in the atrium of the above small hall and the adjacent spaces. It is not lost the curtain-table, an early work by Francesco Serafini from Urbino, which depicts a perspective view of the square in front of the Palazzo Ducale with the Cathedral and the Egyptian obelisk and a monument to the supreme Raffaello Sanzio.

Visit free of charge by calling the reservation at 0722.309221 or 0722.309222 (Department of Culture and Tourism Urbino)