The Roman Theatre in Trieste. Digital Analysis and 3D Visualization

The topic of the research, developed at the University of Trieste, is the geometrical analysis, the digital reconstruction and the advanced communication of one of the main ancient buildings of Trieste, the Roman Theatre. As the building was destroyed in some parts and some of relevant elements – such as the scaenae frons – are not present today, we decided to try to reconstruct the building taking as reference the researches made by historians in order to simulate this architecture in the period it was done. Starting with the digitalization of existing survey drawings, we created two 3D models: the first one describing the actual state; the second one representing the plausible solution of the whole complex form. The technology was used for the verisimilar reconstruction of it, to manipulate it with a 3D stereoscopic real-time system, to be visualized inside the 3D Virtual Room of the Area Science Park in Trieste, but also investigating the Augmented Reality procedure to allow navigation with smart-technologies. After the definition of the final model, we sampled some materials from the archeological site and then we associated them to the geometry of the theatre. So it was possible to define the Cavea and the Scalaria, completing the structure with the Proscenio, the Iposcenio, the Tribunalia, and the perimeter wall, were we can find the holes for the structure of the Velum, to cover the people observing the scene. The final step was the definition of an interactive path, to visit virtually the theatre, as if we were observing a spectacle in the ancient period.