Overview
The Arena Flegrea is the most prestigious and famous location for concerts and outdoor shows in southern Italy. With an auditorium that can hold 6,000 people, it is the second-largest concert arena in Italy and one of the largest modern arenas in Europe.
The first and last work of the architect Giulio De Luca, who when he was very young, built, from 1938 to 1940, the largest building of the First Triannual Exhibition of Italian Overseas Territories ("Prima Mostra Triennale delle Terre Italiane d'Oltremare"): an outdoor arena inspired by the Greco-Roman theatres and designed to host shows, concerts and mass gatherings.
Since its design, every element of the arena has been designed to make the experience of a live event perfect: from the view from the auditorium, which allows for perfect viewing of the show, to the elegant finishes of the foyers where you can enjoy yourself and relax before and after the show.
The Theatre – in white travertine – boasts grandeur in terms of the spaces, wide curves, rhythms and proportions of volumes and surfaces. The whole complex is framed by an evocative landscape.
The Arena was inaugurated as the summer venue of the Teatro San Carlo only in 1952, years after its design, due to the Second World War. The first show was Giuseppe Verdi's Aida, which opened a cycle of very prestigious operatic performances. Closed to the public in 1980, it was rebuilt in 1990 by De Luca himself, reopening its doors in 2001 with simplified and updated shapes and styles. Since its reopening, the facility has hosted international artists such as Bob Dylan, Sting, Andrea Bocelli and many others.
