The Teatro Alighieri was built by Tommaso and Giambattista Meduna and was opened on the evening of the 15th May 1852. The first stone of the Alighieri Theatre was laid in September 1840, but only after they had decided to abandon the restoration of the old theatre, the Comunicativo. Unlike the old theatre which was at the edge of city life and in a state of disuse in Piazzetta degli Svizzeri, the new theatre is at the centre of Ravenna.