Italian Ministry of Culture Buys Verona’s Ex-Cinema Astra, Revealing Roman Complex

The Italian Ministry of Culture has purchased the former Cinema Astra in Verona from the D’Ignazio family, a historic cinema inaugurated in 1937. The acquisition aims to restore and enhance the space, which closed over twenty years ago. In 2004, archaeological excavations beneath the cinema’s raised floor uncovered a vast Roman imperial-era complex spanning the entire surface, with walls preserved over a meter high, decorated with wall paintings and heating systems. Built likely in the Augustan age, the building remained in use until the late 3rd to early 4th century AD, when it was destroyed by a fire, leaving collapsed painted ceilings. The site, located just outside Verona’s city walls between Via Postumia and Via Claudia Augusta, may have been a hospitality structure with over 20 rooms, many with decorated floors and frescoes in excellent condition. It was later stripped in late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli called the complex “a small Pompeii” and emphasized that it will become a social space and a venue for telling Verona’s history. The cinema hall will also reopen for film screenings. The recovery project, named “Per Aspera ad Astra,” will invest €7.5 million to transform the site into a modern museum hub, integrating archaeological preservation with new display technologies. The original architecture will be preserved, with seats arranged around the excavations and a large screen for projections. Work is expected to last four years.