The admirable Monumental Whole of Mérida, declared by UNESCO Inheritance of Humanity, places each year the Classic Festival of Theatre. In the 2004 one commemorated his 50ième edition.

This festival is born on June 18, 1933 with the setting in scene from Medea, of Séneca, being this work one of represented along the history of this festival.

The intellectual politicians of the republic supported this great cultural initiative, but its continuity was subsequently truncated by the beginning of the civil war and the dictatorship of Free which supposed a 19 years absence, up to 1953, year when this festival reappears. As from this moment the festival recovered its quality little by little and sanctions it by transforming the first in its category into Spain and one of most important at the European level held into aestival time.

This cultural event takes place in August and July and joins together around the Roman theatre of traditional works Greece Latin, of music, ballet and opera. During these days of heat, the evening falling, the spectator looks since the steps a magic spectacle, where the past and the present became one. The tragedies the great classic like Séneca, Sophocles, Euripides, etc, represented in this historical theatre transport us per moments at one last time.

In the festival one organizes other activities which are already carried out since the 2000 with a great success of assistance. Those supplement and enrich the festival by theatre, thus in the Cycle Ideas one carries out a series of conferences which treat matters treated in the theatre, and the Alternative Festival, one organizes since Romans dinners, contest of painting, exposures in bars and pub...

The Festival of Mérida arouses a great interest on the level of the public (into 2003 went to the theatre more than 55.000 spectators) and has great repercussions the means of communication, which each year make the echo of their programming. Also many directors of the world scene present their works in this thousand-year-old theatre opening, because they regard this scene as the ideal place to represent their works.