The story of the unearthing of Málaga's Roman theatre is almost as interesting as the theatre itself. Dating from the time of Augustus (1st century AD), it was rediscovered in 1951 by workers building the foundations for a new Casa de Cultura. Today the theatre sits fully exposed beneath the walls of the Alcazaba. A small interpretive centre next door outlines its history and displays a few artefacts shovelled from its crusty foundations.
The Casa de Cultura was built with the freshly discovered theatre left half-exposed next to it, but in 1994, with historians placing greater weight on cultural heritage, the casa was demolished just 38 years after its construction to allow excavations on the theatre to continue.