The unique and unmistakable Maritime Theatre is one of the iconic buildings of Hadrian's Villa in Tivoli, along with the Canopus.
It was designed and built as a miniature villa within the Villa, reserved exclusively for the Emperor Hadrian.
It has been studied and designed since the Renaissance by the greatest architects and antiquarians of the time: Pirro Ligorio (who first excavated it), Andrea Palladio, and then in the 17th and 18th centuries by Francesco Contini and Giovan Battista and Francesco Piranesi.
Outside, the Maritime Theatre has a circular perimeter wall, preceded on the north side by a four-columned pronaos [1] which led to a corridor flanked by two rectangular niches and to the main entrance door.
From that door, a circular portico [2] with Ionic columns was entered, which were raised in the 1950s, also rebuilding part of the vault.
The portico runs along a circular canal [3] that surrounds a veritable island approximately 30 meters in diameter, home to the aforementioned miniature villa. Two additional secondary entrances open into the portico's outer wall: one to the southeast has a stair leading to the Courtyard of the Libraries.
The other to the southwest still connects the Theater to the Hall of the Philosophers and was closed by a large door, the hinge holes of which can still be seen in the floor.
The circular canal served the same function as moats in medieval castles: it made the island inaccessible, satisfying both privacy and security needs.
In ancient times, two small wooden swing bridges (blue in the plan) allowed the emperor to completely isolate himself by rotating them on special tracks, traces of which have been found at the bottom of the canal, along with fragments of the marble cladding. Currently, a modern masonry bridge exists (closed to the public).
The island villa featured all the traditional architectural elements of a Roman domus: atrium, triclinium, cubicula, individual latrines, and even a small private thermal plant.
The two bridges (blue in the plan) led to the atrium [4] which is right in the center of the island, and featured a fountain surrounded by a small curved colonnade, from which the other rooms were accessed.
On the cooler, eastern side of the island, were two cubicula, [5] , separated by a hallway, each one with an alcove for the bed and its own individual latrine.
Opposite the entrance, to the south, in an axial and central position, was the triclinium [6] , the largest room of the building, with an opus sectile floor. It was flanked by two apsidal rooms intended for resting after meals and had two small latrines.
On the west side, the warmest, was a miniature thermal plant, centered on the frigidarium [7] with a small cold-water pool. A few steps led down from the pool and into the circular canal, hence the name Natatorium, (place for swimming) given to it in the 16th century by Pirro Ligorio, who first excavated it. To the south and north of the frigidarium were three small rooms heated by suspensurae, one of which also served as a apodyterium (dressing room).
The floors were in opus sectile, but the marble has disappeared. The walls were frescoed or covered in precious marble. Even today, the light reflected by the water sparkles on the walls, as if by magic, and the effect must have been even more spectacular when the walls were covered in polished marble.
The marble decoration is particularly refined, with a fantastic frieze of animals and sea monsters, discovered in the 16th century during Cardinal Farnese's excavations. Some fragments are now in the Villa's Antiquarium, and others in various European museums.
From that frieze came the name "Maritime Theater," invented in the 19th century by Blondel, one of the French architects who were pensionnaires of the French Academy in Rome and who studied and surveyed the Villa at the time.
The Maritime Theater was the most private and exclusive place in the Villa, the secret refuge where Emperor Hadrian could completely isolate himself from the world, inside a luxurious miniature villa equipped with every comfort.
To learn more about Hadrian's Villa and the history of its excavations, you can read two books by Marina De Franceschini: «Villa Adriana. Architettura Celeste. I segreti dei Solstizi» (in Italian only) and «Villa Adriana. Accademia. Hadrian's Secret Garden» (in English only).