Roman Theatre Mainz

Here we have the ruins of a Roman theater with its own train station! Where else can you get that ...

The Roman Theater is located in the immediate vicinity of the "Mainz Roman Theater" train station and, with a diameter of 116 m and a stage width of 42 m, was once the largest Roman stage theater north of the Alps. The theater offered space for about 10,000 visitors.

When the citadel of Mainz was built in the middle of the 17th century, the area was completely levelled.

Only from 1998, a hundred years after the first rediscovery of the remains of the wall, systematic excavations have been carried out, which are still ongoing. (from Wikipedia)

Like the thermal baths, the theaters were also part of the self-image of Roman life. There was probably no city in the Roman Empire so small that it did not have at least one theater or amphitheater.

However, the discoveries made during the construction of the new paths to the citadel in Mainz from 1914 to 1916 blew everyone's imagination. An ancient stage theater of gigantic proportions had been found. The largest theater north of the Alps had an auditorium that was 116 meters wide. Its stage measured 42 meters. The rows of spectators offered space for around ten thousand visitors - ten times more than would fit in the main building of the Mainz State Theater.

In 2006, the Südbahnhof, below the excavation site, was renamed on the initiative of the Mayor of Mainz at the time, Jens Beutel, and the city council in cooperation with Deutsche Bahn. Since then, commuters and guests of the city have been boarding, alighting and changing trains at the "Mainz - Roman Theater" train station. A glass wall on the platform now opens up a view of the relics of the Roman stage theatre. A real window into the past!
Source: mainz.de/tourismus/sehenswertes/roemisches-buehnentheater.php