Slangenburg Castle was constructed in the Late Medieval period. In the 17th century the castle became the property of General Frederik Johan van Baer, also known as General Slangenburg, who rebuilt it for residential purposes.
The last private owners were a German family called Passmann, who are buried in a private cemetery next to the moat. After the World War II all German properties were confiscated by the Dutch government, who thus acquired the castle, which, with the surrounding terrain and the buildings within the outer moat, now forms part of the portfolio of the Rijksgebouwendienst ('Royal Buildings Service'), while the surrounding area falls under the care of the Dutch environmental agency, the Staatsbosbeheer.
At present the castle is used as a guesthouse by the nearby Benedictine monastery, St. Willibrord's Abbey, a newly built structure of the 1950s situated on a part of the castle's former estate. The original monastic community, from Oosterhout Abbey, was initially accommodated in the castle itself in the years immediately following the war.
The estate and the monastery chapel are open to the public. The estate, roughly trapezoid in shape, features a system of lanes which is centuries old.
References:The Odeon of Herodes Atticus is a stone theatre structure located on the southwest slope of the Acropolis of Athens. It was built in 161 AD by the Athenian magnate Herodes Atticus in memory of his wife, Aspasia Annia Regilla. It was originally a steep-sloped theater with a three-story stone front wall and a wooden roof made of expensive cedar of Lebanon timber. It was used as a venue for music concerts with a capacity of 5,000. It lasted intact until it was destroyed and left in ruins by the Heruli in 267 AD.
The audience stands and the orchestra (stage) were restored using Pentelic marble in the 1950s. Since then it has been the main venue of the Athens Festival, which runs from May through October each year, featuring a variety of acclaimed Greek as well as International performances.