The Roman Theatre is the centrepiece of Mérida and one of the best-preserved Roman theatres anywhere. Its two-tiered marble stage facade — the scaenae frons — is the postcard image: pale honey columns, Corinthian capitals, niches with statues of Ceres and the emperors. The semi-circular cavea, originally seating around 6,000, has been restored enough to use again, and every July and August it hosts the Festival Internacional de Teatro Clásico, with productions of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Plautus performed on the same stones where Romans watched the same plays.
Buy the combined ticket which also covers the adjacent amphitheatre and the Casa del Mitreo. The site is open year-round but the best hour is late afternoon, when the low sun catches the columns from the west. The little garden between the theatre and the modern town has free WCs and a cafe; don't miss the small site museum at the entrance, which has the original statuary that once stood in the niches.