From the stage of the Theatre of Dionysos, the path leads uphill and west to the top of the long Stoa of Eumenes, a colonnade built by Eumenes II, King of Pergamum (197–159 BC), as a shelter and promenade for theatre audiences. Above the stoa, against the hillside, the Asclepieion is a temple that was built around a sacred spring.
The worship of Asclepius, the physician son of Apollo, began in Epidavros and was introduced to Athens in 429 BC, when plague was sweeping the city – people sought cures here.
