Teatro dei Rinnovati

It was during the visit of Grand Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici, in 1560, that the decision was made to turn what had been the hall of the Major Council of the Sienese Republic, built in 1343, into a place for entertainment.

Thus was born what is now the Teatro dei Rinnovati, recently restored (between 2004 and 2009) bringing out the harmony and beauty of the project which is basically that of 1752 signed by Antonio Galli also known as “Bibbiena”, revised by Agostino Fantastici, ultimate protagonist of the romantic Sienese scene in 1832. It can accommodate more than 600 seats distributed between the stalls and the 88 galleries.

Rinnovati is the name of the Academy that was specifically established, succeeding the Intronati academy, in 1802 to provide for the restoration after the 1798 earthquake. As is customary, the new academy acquired a motto, which read “cangio la vecchia e nuova spoglia prendo” (roughly “I change the old skin and take a new one”), and a coat of arms representing a snake shedding its skin.

To reconstruct the original colour line wanted by Fantastici, who had chosen a shade of mountain green for the inside of the galleries and that the restoration of 1950 erased preferring burgundy red, a silk fabric with alternating shiny and opaque lines was chosen, in tune with the green present in the grotesque (a type of ornament). Even the rust colour of the velvet of the armchairs and curtains of the galleries was designed to be in tune with the decorations of the nineteenth-century project. The stage curtain is made of green heavy velvet, with fringes and rich golden edges.