ATHENA project: guidelines for the substainable use of ancient theatres

Abstract

Since the UNESCO established the need for Management Plans for the sites inscribed to World Heritage List, those tools have gained increasing relevance. ATHENA is an international cooperation project included in the program EUROMED HERITAGE IV of the EUROPEAN COMMISSION and is aimed at sharing, within the Mediterranean Basin, the best practices for sustainable use of ancient theatres. These buildings play a fundamental role for cultural and economic development, but need special care when used for staging activities: from the point of view of users (safety, comfort, etc.) and for monument preservation. The IRP has developed a managerial tool for contemporary uses divided into three parts: Preliminary Activities for spreading knowledge about theatre, Fundamentals, which are a series of definitions and procedures for the management of ancient theatres in general, and the third part, which will be a manual for carrying out diagnosis and proposals for the theatre.