Featured image: FacebookSource: Il Post
Posted on 08/24/2026 11:24:29 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Marketed as a Neolithic and Roman find, the site was in fact assembled with concrete and grouted stone blocks.
A man in northern Italy has been sent to prison after Italy's highest court gave final confirmation to his conviction for illegally constructing a fake ancient theater and presenting it to the public as a genuine archaeological site, charging visitors an entrance fee of up to 40 euros.
The structure still stands in Arcugnano, in the province of Vicenza. It consists of tiered stone seating built from stacked stones that were worked to look ancient. The columns are fake too, made of concrete, along with plaster statues and an artificial small lake dug beneath the tiers in the arena area.
The site was built in 2016 on a plot of roughly 5,000 square meters and was marketed under the name "Anfiteatro marittimo berico Porto degli Angeli," presented as an extraordinary archaeological find containing Neolithic, Roman and Greek era artifacts. Promotional material at the time described it as an authentic, millennia-old archaeological gem of the pre-Roman Veneto territory, claiming events, concerts, performances and conferences were held there. Technically the name itself was misleading, since true amphitheaters have an elliptical plan like the Colosseum, while structures with a semicircular plan are correctly called theaters.
(Excerpt) Read more at weirditaly.com ...
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Featured image: FacebookSource: Il Post
can’t use the graphics from the CNN story (Getty), but here’s the received link:
https://lite.cnn.com/2026/08/24/travel/anfiteatro-berico-italy-fake-greek-theater-roman-amphitheater
A gifted faker name Alexander founded an oracle in a backwater on the south shore of the Black Sea. Here, for stiff prices, a talking serpent he had rigged up answered questions for the local hayseeds... (p 135)Travel in the Ancient World
by Lionel Casson
Thanks for the link!
Wonder if Rick Steves filmed his show there.
Theater, by it’s own definition is usually a fable of fiction. Shouldn’t this man be quietly praised for pulling the Roman Wool over all these eyes for so long?
Even a well made facade of the old building (which is what this was) would have worked to some degree, because there was a public thirst for the aura of that era.
A bunch of folks in Greece had this same idea about 3000 years ago.
[yeah,,,I know...he didn't really say it...]
Nobody noticed them building it?
Gotta give the guy credit…😂… or Euros…
The customers got the experience they wanted. Fine him and let the man go. The structure can become part of a con man tour.
It happens here too. There was a place in historic Philadelphia called City Tavern. They had billboards inviting you to eat and drink where the founding fathers met after their days in Independence Hall.
We got suckered in. As we were waiting for our colonial menu meal, I realized that the floors didn’t squeak and the walls were awfully straight for a 275 year old building.
Turns out the old one burned in the 1980’s and they rebuilt it.
Bait and switch.
I see no difference in that and Pet Rocks or Sea Monkeys...
If the builder had done it with an eye to actual use rather than deceiving people, he could simply have announced it as a fake but picturesque space available for outdoor events.
Then there is the peculiar habit of the current Chinese dynasty: They destroy the old temples and cities and build replicas in their place.
“When in Rome, do as the Romans do.”
False but accurate.
Roman Wool?
It was a Golden Fleece!.....................
Too much like work. Swindlers get their kicks from the swindle.
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