In ancient Athens, already from the 6th century BCE, three renowned Gymnasia, where young people exercised their body and spirit, operated. The areas chosen for the establishment of the Gymnasia were located in the suburbs of the city: the Lyceum, the Academia and the Cynosarges. These were spacious areas, with natural vegetation, shady groves and abundant water from the Athenian rivers. During the classical period, suitable facilities were constructed there, including stoas, palaestrae (wrestling grounds), baths and stadiums for the training of the youth and their intellectual cultivation.

According to ancient literary evidence, the area of the Lyceum, situated to the east of the city, was defined by the gates of Diochares and the temple of Olympian Zeus to the west, by the river Ilissos and the Panathenaic Stadium to the south, and by the foothills of mount Lycabettus and the river Eridanus to the north. It was in this area that Aristotle, the great thinker of antiquity, chose to establish his philosophical school in 335 BCE.

The philosopher Theophrastus (371-287 BCE), Aristotle’s successor in the School, mentions that in the Lyceum there was a sanctuary dedicated to the Muses, the Garden of the Muses, residences, stoas, an altar and the statues of Aristotle and Nicomachus. In addition, the traveller Pausanias (110–180 CE) informs us that in the area of the Lyceum there was the sanctuary of Apollo Lyceus, the tomb of the king of Megara Nisus, and the Gymnasium.

As the area documented in ancient sources is located beneath modern buildings, it could not be identified with certainty. However, in 1996, during excavations on present day Rigillis Street, a large public building was uncovered which was conclusively identified as the Palaestra of the Lyceum’s Gymnasium, the place where young people practised wrestling and boxing.

Although only the northern part of the structure (north, east and west sides), covering an area of 2.5 acres, was uncovered, the floor plan could be restored. The building, founded in the last decades of the 4th century BCE, consists of a rectangular courtyard surrounded on three sides by stoas. To the east and west there were rooms of similar layout and dimensions, while on the north side, at the centre, there was a large rectangular space with symmetrically developed rooms on both sides. In two of these rooms, hypocausts with accompanying antechambers and reservoirs were found. In the outer, northern part of the building, there was another stoa and, in the courtyard, a cold bath tank was discovered.

The large central hall on the northern side of the building is probably identified with the Ephebeion, a platform for the gathering of young people. In the spaces where the hypocausts were found, the bath must have existed in earlier times. Vitruvius (1st century BCE) in his treatise “On Architecture” (De Architectura) states that to the left and right of the ephebeion were the elaiotheseion, the storehouse for the oils used by the athletes, the conisterion, a place for the application of the dust or sand that the athletes put on their oiled bodies, and the coryceum, the place where the corykes, the leather punching bags used for boxing practice, were kept. Although the archaeological data of the Palaestra of the Lyceum’s Gymnasium do not allow for a definite identification of the rooms, one can reasonably assume that these spaces, arranged around the central courtyard, would have served these functions.

The Palaestra suffered damages during the raid of Sulla in 86 BCE and underwent repairs to continue its operation. During this phase, the two hypocausts were constructed in the northern part of the building, in the location where the baths were originally, while a little later the courtyard’s cistern was also built. In 267 CE, the Heruli caused damages to the building, which was subsequently repaired to restore the Palaestra’s function. After centuries of use, around the end of the 4th century, the Palaestra was probably destroyed during Alaric’s invasion on Athens in 396 CE and was permanently abandoned.