Aitoloakarnania is an important geographical area of Greece, as it is located on important land and sea communication routes. Due to its key and strategic location, it has been continuously inhabited since Palaeolithic times. Its inhabitants, taking advantage of the natural topography of the area, developed a strong agricultural and livestock farming economy.

More than 150 sites in Aitoloakarnania still preserve examples of defensive architecture: imposing fortifications, walls and towers, which protected the ancient cities, as well as examples of the everyday life of the inhabitants: residential remains, public buildings, markets, theatres and cemeteries.

The area was inhabited mainly by the Aetolian and Akarnanian nations, with the Acheloos River as a natural boundary between them. The second in size and importance city of the Akarnans, after ancient Stratos, was the ancient Oiniades.

The city of Oiniades is built on the northern bank of the river Acheloos, near the present-day village of Kasosos. Due to its strategic position, thanks to which it controlled both the entrance to the Patraikos Gulf and the sea route between Acarnania and the islands of Lefkada, Ithaca and Kefalonia, as well as its proximity to the mouth of the Acheloos River, the city was ideal for the creation of a port. The existence of a port allowed commercial activity and, by extension, the city’s great economic and cultural prosperity.

Oiniades, as early as the 5th century BC, had a strong fortification, which still dominates today on the hill, which is known by the name ‘Trikardos’. Its preservation is impressive, and as a result it is one of the most characteristic examples of ancient fortification art.

At the top of the hill is the Acropolis with a separate enclosure. The walls, approximately 2,60 m wide and with a maximum surviving height of 6 m, extend over a perimeter of approximately 6,5 km and are built according to the polygonal masonry system. A separate fortification, known as the ‘fortification or acropolis of the harbour’, encloses the harbour and the Oiniades nerites.

The fortification is supplemented at intervals by towers (probably later additions). There are also twelve gates and pillars of different types.

Within the fortification were the public buildings of the ancient Agora (parliament building, stoa, ‘building with houses’, temple, Heroon), the so-called ‘Building on the Hill’, the bath of the late Hellenistic period and the theatre, which are still visible today. Outside the walls, graves from the eastern cemetery of the city have been excavated.

A unique monument of the area and one of the most imposing of antiquity, due to their very good preservation, are the neosikoi or neoria. They were used for the retrieval of ships inside them, in order to repair them or to keep them for a certain period of the winter. The neosikoi are located at the south-western end of the harbour fortifications.

It is a roofed structure with a pi-shaped plan, measuring approximately 41 m x 47 m, the east side of which, approximately 11 m high, is almost entirely vertically carved into the natural rock. The floor is also carved into the natural rock. The interior of the building was symmetrically divided by five rows of seventeen symmetrical columns of seventeen columns. The openings between the colonnades were covered by gabled elongated roofs with laconic tiles. Between the colonnades there were six equal ‘aisles’ with carved scaphoidal and uphill floors. These were the ramps through which the ships were drawn into the shed area.

The monument, which dates back to the 4th century BC, has many architectural elements related to the neosikoi of the port of Zeus in Piraeus. It was in full operation until the end of the 3rd century BC, when, for an unknown reason, the roof gave way, the colonnades collapsed and the flywheels filled the ramps, making them impossible to use.

Among the excavated monuments of the archaeological site of Oiniades, the theatre of the ancient city, located near the Agora, occupies an important place.

It is worth noting that to date five theatres have been discovered in the area of Aitoloakarnania, while the location of a sixth is known and the existence of a seventh is suspected. The theatres belong to the cities of Oiniades, Stratos, Makynia, Kalydona, Plevrona and Amfilochikos Argos.

The first research in the ancient theatre of Oiniades was carried out in 1900 by the American archaeologist B. Powell, when the stage, the orchestra and about half of the hollow were discovered. In May of the following year, the inscribed stone blocks with the liberating inscriptions of the works were uncovered in the south-western part of the cave. Since then the site remained partially covered until 1987, when the Fifth Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities undertook its complete uncovering. The investigation continued in 1991 and was completed in 1993. From 2002 to 2006, conservation and restoration work was carried out on the individual parts of the monument. Work on the completion of the survey and the preparation of a restoration study for the monument is expected to start again soon.

The hollow of the theatre, which is carved in the grey local limestone of the area, is larger than a semicircle and consists of twenty-eight rows of seats, of which only nineteen (originally there must have been 29 or 30) are preserved. Its south-western side is formed on an artificial earthen slope, on which there were built rows of seats, some of which bear liberation inscriptions. The spectators approached their seats by means of twelve staircases (only nine are visible today), which divided the cavern into eleven stands without a mezzanine. The southeast and northwest ends of the cavern were filled with retaining walls.

The orchestra, 16,14 m in diameter, is covered with hard packed earth and flanked by a 0,46 m wide stone curb, which is preserved in excellent condition. Between the orchestra and the first row of seats there is a drainage channel with covering slabs, which created a kind of access corridor for the spectators to the seats in the pit. The stage, from which only the foundations of the proscenium and the backstage areas are visible, is in a poor state of preservation.

The Oiniades theatre, like other theatres of antiquity, has certain architectural peculiarities, such as the divergence of the confluence of the axes of the pit and the ascending stairs from the centre of the orchestra.

Two building phases can be identified in the theatre, mainly related to reconstructions of the stage structure and less to other interventions in the other parts of the theatre.

In the mid-4th century BC the theatre was operated by means of a single-storey rectangular stage structure with five large openings in its front, defined by four pylons bearing Doric-style abacus and echinus epicentres. The openings between the pylons were blocked by paintings (scenography) that corresponded to the staging needs.

In the first half of the 3rd century BC, a proscenium was added to the front of the original stage, which now takes the place of the main structural element. Two small backstages were also built to the east and west of the stage, enclosing the projecting proscenium. On the front of the pillars supporting the flat roof of the proscenium were semi-columns with Ionic capitals. The original rectangular stage building was extended in height and was converted from a single storey to a two-storey building. The upper band of the architrave, the so-called ‘thrigos’, bears the sponsorship inscription [TH]N ORCHIST[RAN], which refers to its construction. At the same time as the interventions on the façade, the older orchestra was remodelled by the addition and construction of a stone perimeter shelter, and the construction of a built-in drain in the space between the hollow and the shelter for the collection and drainage of rainwater. The theatre had very good acoustics and a capacity of 4 600 spectators.

Maria Sofikitou

Archaeologist

Bibliography:

The ancient theatres of Aitoloakarnania,

Lazaros Kolonas, Maria Stavropoulou – Gatsis, Georgios Stamatis, “DIAZOMA” Publications, Ancient Theatres series, Athens 2009.

The ancient theatres of Aitoloakarnania: ANCIENT THEATRE OF OINIADON – Past – Present – Future,

Lazaros Kolonas, Maria Stavropoulou – Gatsis, Georgios Stamatis,

Sponsorship Folder prepared for the website of the association “DIAZOMA”, available at the following e-mail address:

http://www.diazoma.gr/200-Stuff-15-Paratiritirio/DataSheet-Aitoloakarnania-Oiniadon.pdf)

Scientific bulletin on the ancient theatre of Oiniades,

Lazaros Kolonas, available on the website of the association “DIAZOMA” at the following e-mail address:

http://www.diazoma.gr/GR/Page_04-01_AT-012.asp