Teatro dei Leggieri, San Gimignano

Teatro dei Leggieri is a theater located in San Gimignano.

A theatrical use of the great hall of the former Palace of the Podestà, known as the Clock Palace, is documented as early as 1537 when it was taken by a group of young people to hold their own performances there.

At the end of the 1700s, the company of amateurs formed itself into a full-fledged theater society under the name Accademia dei Leggieri and set about transforming the hall received in perpetual use into a proper theater.

The new theater was inaugurated in 1794: with a horseshoe plan and 22 boxes distributed on two tiers, it featured Baroque lines and precious stucco, tempera and gold decorations. The new theater thus became the cultural center of San Gimignano, hosting civic assemblies, conferences, theatrical and musical performances by both local and foreign companies. Despite its modest size, major opera productions were also scheduled.

After having been used as a shelter for evacuees during the last World War, it was entrusted after the war to private individuals who used it as a movie theater until 1953 when it was finally sold to private individuals with the stipulation, however, that it would guarantee logistical support for the opera and concert seasons staged by the Municipal Administration in the adjacent Piazza del Duomo. In 1967 it was acquired by the City Council, which immediately started a recovery procedure. After an initial project drawn up by architect Leonardo Ricci, an intervention was carried out to ensure respect for the original structure, entrusting the task to engineer Fabio Galli of the Municipal Technical Office.

Included in the regional project with FIO funding, the rehabilitation project implemented the complete renovation of the building in order to give it a new usability.

Today the theater has excellent acoustics, a capacity of a hundred seats, stage and facilities completely redone, and is an ideal space for chamber, prose and music performances, recitals and readings.