Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 55, "Eroica" is a symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven, composed in 1803–1804 and first performed in 1805. Signalling a move towards the Romantic era, it expands orchestral forces and formal structures through extended development passages, inventive harmonic progressions and dramatic thematic transformations, and it occupies a central position in Beethoven's middle period and in early 19th-century musical history.
