Théâtre antique de Neung-sur-Beuvron

About

The ancient theatre of Neung-sur-Beuvron is a performance building, dating from the late 1st or early 2nd century, located in the French commune of Neung-sur-Beuvron, in the department of Loir-et-Cher. Associated with one or more temples and a source within a rural sanctuary, it is more than 2 km south of a secondary agglomeration — probably that which Julius Caesar calls Noviodunum — but close to the territorial boundary between the civitates of the Carnuts and the Bituriges Cubes, in the natural region of Sologne. With a diameter of 100 m and a maximum height estimated at 9 m, it may host 7,000 spectators.

It is frequented until the third century, then briefly and partially occupied in the fourth century as a shelter before being permanently abandoned and serving as a quarry of building materials. In the 19th century its location is known but not its nature: the publications of the time, relaying local oral traditions, evoke a castral motte or a strong castle. Rediscovered and identified in 1974, it was searched from 1976 and listed as a historical monument in 1979.

His remains are buried under a sandy hill.