Bolu Antik Stadion Kalıntısı

The ancient stadium which is situated at the southern slopes of the Hisartepesi -is a Turkish name of the location meaning in essence “Citadel Hill ”- so-called acropolis (high city, symbolic centre of the settlement) of ancient Claudiopolis/modern day Bolu, is the city’s most remarkable but unfortunately the only surviving ancient building.The primary purpose of the ancient stadium was to provide a venue for athletic competitions and for spectators to watch these popular events such as foot races, high jumping, boxing, wrestling, javelin or discus throwing etc., and later on probably included Roman spectacles such as Gladiatorial games and venationes which included hunting shows and fight against wild animals such as bears, felis lynxes and hyenas etc.Although the stadium has been below the ground since an unknown, sadly it has suffered deliberate destruction to reuse the processed lime stone fragments of the stadium for new construction attempts which ends up with great and also irreversible damage to the Stadion.Of the well-preserved U-shaped examples which were dated to approximately the same period of the Roman Age in Anatolia, Claudiopolis stadium has also oriented slightly due east - west and only 93,50 m part of the North (long) side – which is supported by a natural ramp of southern slopes of the Hisartepesi has probably at least 180 m length before the damage as mentioned before- still surviving and intact thus its capacity was some number between 3200 and 3500 for the spectator.The running track for performers is separated by one and a half-meter-high podium which was partly buried before the ongoing excavation. In recent excavations; 15 well-preserved kerkides and a total of 5 seating rows have been unearthed so far.In terms of archaeological documentation, unlike many other ruins, the specific date of stadium is not difficult to determine thanks to a surviving and well-preserved construction inscription of the building which is comprised of two lines of sharp and regularly inscribed letters on the smooth surface of thick marble panels which is embedded and attached to surface with cramp irons that is located in the middle point of the North (long) side.The contents of the first line on the inscription by means of bearing his name's lengthy formula which included imperial titles, indicated that this tremendous Stadium was build in the reign of Roman Emperor Hadrian (A.D. 117-138) without any doubt. Furthermore, the presence of the word “STAΔION” in the second line, which indicates the function of the building, reveals the importance of the ruins as well.