The Odeon of Herodes Atticus, also known as the Herodeoin, is a Roman theatre completed in 161AD and is located on the southwest slope of the Acropolis of Athens in Greece. Herodes Atticus was an Athenian rhetorician, Roman senator and a philanthropist who was responsible for many Athenian Public Works. He taught rhetoric to the Roman Emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus. He built the Theatre in memory of his wife Aspasia Annia Regilla. It was the third Odeon to be built in Athens but was more distinctively Roman than its predecessors the Odeon of Pericles (5th century BC) and the Odeon of Agrippa (15BC). This steep stadium with its three-story stone front wall would have originally had a wooden roof made of exquisite and expensive Cedar of Lebanon timber. It had a capacity of 5,000. The Odeon was destroyed and left in ruins after an attack by the Heruli (an early Germanic tribe) when they raided Athens in 267 AD.
Some restoration and rebuilding took place in 1898, 1900 and 1922 but largely the Odeon remained in ruins until the 1950s when the audience stands and the orchestra (stage) were restored using Pentelic marble. It has been the main venue of the Athens festival since 1957 and an illustrious lineup of stars have performed there including Maria Callas, Frank Sinatra, Nana Mouskouri, Luciano Pavarotti, Elton John and Sting to name just a few.
Its well worth visiting the Odeon both from the Acropolis above it and also at ground level to its south.
GPS: 37.97081, 23.72447