Apollon Municipal Theatre
Ernst Ziller's 1872 theatre on Georgiou A' Square, main stage of the Patras municipal theatre.
The foundation stone of the Apollon was laid on 11 February 1871, to designs by the German-born architect Ernst Ziller, and the building was finished the following year at a cost of 148,542 drachmas, about a third of it met by the municipality. It opened on 10 October 1872 when an Italian company gave Verdi's Un ballo in maschera. Standing on the northern side of Georgiou A' Square, its neo-Renaissance front carries a five-arched portico repeated on the upper storey, with ceramic figures made in Vienna along the roofline.
Inside is a horseshoe auditorium of about 250 seats with three tiers of boxes and a gallery, modelled on the Italian opera houses of the period and among the oldest surviving enclosed theatres in Greece. Italian melodrama held the stage until the collapse of the currant trade in the early twentieth century; from 1910 Greek touring companies predominated. The theatre is now the main stage of the Patras Municipal and Regional Theatre, which mounts its own productions there and hosts visiting drama and music ensembles.
Highlights
- Opened on 10 October 1872 with Verdi's Un ballo in maschera
- Neo-Renaissance facade with a five-arched portico by Ernst Ziller
- Horseshoe auditorium of about 250 seats with three tiers of boxes
- Main stage of the Patras Municipal and Regional Theatre
