Type:

Luoghi della cultura; Oggetto fisico

Category:

Architectural Heritage; Museums

Torti Theater The Teatro Torti is in Piazza San Silvestri, the main square of Bevagna, and is part of—together with the Civic Museum and the Roman Thermal Baths Mosaic—the Museums City Circuit, the Circuito Museale Cittadino. It was built in 1886, on a design of the architect Antonio Martini, inside the old Palazzo dei Consoli, which was the old municipal premises until the 1832 earthquake, and it is dedicated to the man of letters Francesco Torti. Its construction was strongly desired by the townspeople, who reunited in a promoting committee in 1871. The inauguration was held the evening of 28 August 1886, and for the occasion Alferdo Lupi, the Impresario, set the scene for the representation of the Opera of the Ernani—of Giuseppe Verdi—together with the Educande di Sorrento. On the ground floor, a Loggia still remains covered by three majestic Gothic arches and a smaller one, which was probably used as an entrance to a commercial space. It is one of the smallest theaters of Umbria, there are only 251 seats, but it is finely decorated and contains interesting paintings of the 19th century. Its floor plan is horseshoe-shaped, there are three orders of balconies—galleries—and a loggia; the parapet is made of a series of pig-iron columns. The ceiling, frescoed by Mariano Piervittori, represents The Dancing Muses. The curtain is original and was painted by Domenico Bruchi, with Propertius Pointing to Torti His Fatherland, in 1886. During the 1994 restoration work, another curtain was painted by Luigi Frappi, a painter from Bevagna, depicting the Clitunno River with a poetical cippus and a small Temple. On the coat of arms above the curtain dating from 1380, donated by Pope Innocent IV, one can read the letters ”OsF” that stands for the Latin motto “Ob servatam Fidem” [For Having Preserved and Followed Faith in the Church]. After the work of restoration the theater has been constantly active.