Il Teatro Signorelli. Un’architettura dell’Ottocento agli albori della sperimentazione dei nuovi materiali da costruzione

The construction of the Signorelli theatre of Cortona was an opportunity to achieve a comprehensive urban transformation in an area of great importance, that was interposed between the Town Hall and the Cathedral. This is surely one of the largest and greatest intervention among those made in the town in the nineteenth century: three blocks were demolished, two roads and a third partially were closed, and a building of the importance of the “Loggia del Grano” was demolished. In 1854 the design of Carlo Gatteschi obtained final approval. We could say, with a modern expression, that the solution drawn up by Gatteschi was characterised as a multipurpose building, as well as the theatre included a loggia for the weekly markets, warehouses for commercial activities and the “Civiche Stanze” on the first floor, spaces for leisure of the citizen. During the construction, the solutions developed by Gatteschi underwent a lot of changes. The structural layout of the theatre is very interesting, in fact we can identify different structural systems, on functions and entity of the loads. A macro structure formed by a large roughly rectangular cell, covered by monumental wooden trusses of 19 m span, was realised. It is a structural layout that testifies to the persistence of the construction systems, as this solution is due to the tradition of the medieval single cell churches of the mendicant orders, which had roof trusses. Inside the large space covered by trusses, stalls and boxes were realised with thin brick load-bearing walls. From the constructive point of view the ceiling of the stalls is relevant; it was built using wooden arches, with a span of almost twelve meters, that was obtained by placing plank of wood that had been nailed together. All this is a wonderful example of the continuity and improvement of the construction site knowledge, from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century. Some architectural peculiarities of the theatre of Cortona are related to other theatres built between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, such as Morlacchi of Perugia, Garibaldi of Foiano, Guglielmi of Massa and Gentile of Fabriano.