First Capital Music Hall Schedule

Did You Know?

The Madaba Map clearly showed the Roman Cardo as the main artery through the Old City.

The street was lined with shops, merchants, and vendors.Most Roman cities also had a Decumanus Maximus, an east-west street that served as a secondary main street.

273. Despite aesthetic differences, the approximate height of the base, column, and capitol units of the colonnade is five meters, a height which contributed to the spaciousness of the porticoes.Avigad 1984: 221. The wall of the Cardo’s eastern portico featured an arcade that housed various stalls and workshops, rented from the state by craftsmen and merchants.For a detailed discussion of the relationship between state and business under the Roman Empire, see Jones 1955. These architectural divisions contrasted the unarticulated space of the western portico.The line of the Cardo Maximus still exists in the modern fabric of the Old City as Jewish Quarter Street, though the original pavement of the Cardo lays several meters below the modern street level.

Due to varying geography, in some cities the decumanus is the main street and the cardo is secondary, but in general the cardo maximus served as the primary road.

Brussels: La Librairie Encyclopedique.Kennedy, Hugh.

The southern addition to the Cardo, constructed under Justinian in the 6th century CE, extended the road further south to connect the Church of the Holy Sepulchre with the newly-built Zion Gate.Avigad 1984: 226. Along its length, the roadway was divided into three parts: two colonnaded covered walks flanking a 12 meter wide road.Avigad 1984: 221. The shaded porticoes provided separation of pedestrian traffic from wheeled carts, shelter from the elements, space for small-scale commerce, as well as opportunities for residents and visitors alike to gather and interact.At least until the end of the Byzantine period, the open space of the agora or forum was still the locus of economic activity in the city.