A pristine theatre, dating back to 1362 and intended to host the cultural activities of the Sapienza Vecchia boarding school, was located in a large room with cross vaults.
In the second half of the 18th century it was called the “Teatro Nazionale dell’Accademia di Belle Lettere ed Arti” and until the pre-Napoleonic era (1798) it hosted numerous Italian and foreign travelling companies; it is said that the young Carlo Goldoni performed there.
Following the 19th-century renovation of the building, the theatre was rebuilt in neo-Gothic style, in the new wing of the complex. Today, it appears as a medieval hall, divided into two bays with ribbed cross vaults. The stage equipment reproduces, on a smaller scale, the typology of larger opera houses, such as La Scala in Milan. An elegant gallery-loggia surrounds half of the stalls. The decorations of the main hall and the adjacent ‘Sala rossa’ were realised by the Perugian painters L. Rossi Scotti and M. Tassi.
In the last years of the 20th century the theatre was restored and consequently reopened to the public.
