The Theatre at Epidaurus, built in the 340s BC, and its festival held since 1955

Spectators at Sophocles' "Antigone" in the ancient Greek theatre at Epidaurus in 1956. The theatre at Epidaurus is the best preserved of all the theatres of Ancient Greece. The amphitheatre, built to seat fifteen thousand spectators in the 340s BC close to the Asclepieion, not far from the small town of Ligourio, has kept its original aesthetic and peerless acoustics to this day, thanks in no small part to a splendid restoration in the 1950s.

Since 1955 a theatre festival has been held at Epidaurus every summer, with productions staged on the ancient stage. This, however, is a fine tradition common to nearly all of Greece's surviving ancient theatres: they go on living a theatrical life, draw audiences and regularly hold festivals