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Hidden gem1st c. BC – 3rd c. ADFree

Small Roman Theatre, Pula

Malo rimsko kazalište, Roman Theatre, Pula

theatre · Istria County, Croatia

What it is
The Small Roman Theatre is one of the three buildings Roman Pula had for public entertainment, a semicircular theatre set into the eastern slope of the town's central hill.
What you’ll see
The foundations of the stage building and the semicircular auditorium, its seating partly cut into the living rock of the slope, with the stage and the actors' area on the flat side (the museum; hr.wikipedia).
Worth the trip?
As part of a walk round Roman Pula, yes, if you can get in. It is a different kind of building from the Arena — a theatre for plays rather than an amphitheatre for games.
Getting there & cost
The theatre is at Herculov prolaz 1, on the eastern slope of the old town's hill above the Archaeological Museum of Istria (the museum). The Twin Gates of the Roman walls lead up to it, as they did in antiquity (hr.wikipedia).Free · Free (Archaeological Museum of Istria) · checked 26 September 2026Hours, tickets and parking
A semicircular Roman theatre on a hillside, its stone seating rows curving round a lawn, with a large yellow building and a pale villa above it and a low retaining wall along the stage side.
The theatre on the slope of the town's central hill, with the museum buildings above. · Photo: Carole Raddato · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Tiers of stone seats rising in a curve up a hillside behind a green lawn, with the paved stage area and its low walls in the foreground and pine trees on the ridge above.
The seating, partly cut into the rock of the hillside, above the lawn of the orchestra. · Photo: Orlovic · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Close view of worn limestone seating rows curving round the edge of a lawn, the stone rough and broken where the rows meet the rock of the slope.
The seating rows before the 2021–2022 rebuilding. · Photo: Carole Raddato · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

The Small Roman Theatre is one of the three buildings Roman Pula had for public entertainment, a semicircular theatre set into the eastern slope of the town’s central hill. Excavated and then partly rebuilt in 2021–2022, it is now used for performances again.

What is there today

The foundations of the stage building and the semicircular auditorium, its seating partly cut into the living rock of the slope, with the stage and the actors’ area on the flat side (the museum; hr.wikipedia). The 2021–2022 works made it possible to see almost the full original height of the theatre and the layout of its seats (the museum). Built of local Istrian limestone, the theatre was once faced with marble low down and plastered and painted higher up, and its stage was richly decorated with pilasters, columns, architraves and arches; a few remains of the reliefs from the stage front are in the Archaeological Museum of Istria below, which is currently closed for a new permanent display (the museum; hr.wikipedia).

Is it worth the trip?

As part of a walk round Roman Pula, yes, if you can get in. It is a different kind of building from the Arena — a theatre for plays rather than an amphitheatre for games. The difficulty is access: there is no timetable, and visits are arranged by writing to the museum, so on a casual walk you may only see it from outside. Part of what stands is a modern rebuilding on the Roman plan.

Getting there

The theatre is at Herculov prolaz 1, on the eastern slope of the old town’s hill above the Archaeological Museum of Istria (the museum). The Twin Gates of the Roman walls lead up to it, as they did in antiquity (hr.wikipedia). Entry is free; to visit, write to the museum at arheoloski-muzej-istre@pu.t-com.hr (Archaeological Museum of Istria, read 26 September 2026).

Visiting details

Opening hours
No regular opening hours are published; to visit, write to the museum at arheoloski-muzej-istre@pu.t-com.hr. The theatre is used for performances and events.
Tickets
Free (Archaeological Museum of Istria).

Before you go

  • Visits are arranged by email rather than on a timetable, so the gate may be shut when you pass.

Hours and prices checked 26 September 2026 on the operator's own site. Confirm before travelling.

History

Pula had two theatres. This one stood inside the town, on the eastern and north-eastern slopes of the central hill; the Large Roman Theatre stood outside the walls and was largely quarried in the 17th century by Antoine de Ville to build Pula’s castle (the museum; hr.wikipedia). Using a hillside for the auditorium was more a Greek than a Roman habit, hr.wikipedia notes. After it fell out of use the theatre was buried and forgotten until excavations at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century; only in 1911 did the archaeologist Anton Gnirs realise it was a theatre — its northern entrance had been taken for the approach to the Capitol (the museum). hr.wikipedia says it held up to 5,000 spectators in antiquity; rebuilt, it seats about 1,250.

More photographs

A narrow passage between a tall wall of neat stone blocks on the left and a rough rock face with masonry on the right, open to the sky.
A passage along the side of the theatre. · Photo: Viktar Palstsiuk · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Nearby

  • The ruined corner of a Roman temple built of large squared stone blocks, carrying fragments of a carved cornice, standing on a lawn among old stone houses.

    Photo: Maesi64 · CC0 · Commons

    44 km · city · Istria County

    Parentium – Poreč

    The town plan still shows the shape of the Roman castrum, and the two main streets, the Decumanus and the Cardo Maximus, keep their original lines.

  • The apse of a church covered in gold-ground mosaics, a row of standing apostles above an arch framed with round portrait medallions, and in the semi-dome below the Virgin enthroned with the Child between saints and angels.

    Photo: Carole Raddato · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Commons

    45 km · site · Istria County

    Euphrasian Basilica

    The whole episcopal complex survives: the basilica itself, an atrium surrounded by porticoes with a collection of carved stones, an octagonal baptistery, the bishop's palace and a later bell tower (en.wikipedia).

Straight-line distances.

Sources

Every fact on this page comes from the records below, each used under the licence noted.

SourceLicence
Pleiades 627408618CC BY
Wikidata Q16112130CC0
OpenStreetMap way/1038079915ODbL
Wikipedia (hr) — Malo rimsko kazalište u PuliCC BY-SA 4.0
Arheološki muzej Istre — Malo rimsko kazalište (the operator)licence not recorded