Dodoni ancient theatre
— a bowl of stone that still holds the voice.
Not only on a wall.
Dodoni ancient theatre, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.
Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.
“Tiers of limestone benches cut into the hillside, opening onto the plain of Dodoni and the long ridge of Tomaros beyond. The theatre seated about seventeen thousand at its peak, one of the largest in the Greek world. Behind it the sanctuary of Zeus, where priests once read the oracle in the rustle of an oak. Most afternoons the wind is the only audience.
The place, in three passes.
Dodoni sits in a high inland basin of Epirus at roughly 630 metres, about 22 kilometres southwest of the city of Ioannina. The sanctuary of Zeus here was one of the oldest oracles in the Greek world; Herodotus calls it the oldest of all. Worship at the site goes back at least to the late 2nd millennium BC, and the great theatre on the lower slope was built in the early 3rd century BC under King Pyrrhus of Epirus. Tomaros, the long ridge to the south, frames the whole basin and dominates every view from the seating.
The theatre is cut into the natural slope and is one of the largest preserved Greek theatres, with an estimated capacity near 17,000 across three horizontal sections divided by walkways. The cavea was restored in stages through the 20th and early 21st centuries, with a major conservation programme completed by the Greek Ministry of Culture in the 2010s. The bench stone is local limestone, weathered to a soft pale grey. The orchestra and lower seating return regularly to use for summer performances staged by the local cultural authority.
The archaeological site opens daily; the standard adult ticket is around €8 in season and includes the sanctuary of Zeus, the theatre and the small bouleuterion alongside. Mornings are usually empty and the light is best then; afternoons can bring strong wind across the plain. The drive from Ioannina runs about 35 minutes south on the EO20, passing through small farming villages. Winter closing is earlier, typically by three in the afternoon. The newer Archaeological Museum of Ioannina holds many of the oracle tablets found on the site.
