Palaestra at Olympia
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The palaestra at Olympia, Greece is an ancient structure, now in ruins. There were many palaestra throughout Greece. A palaestra was the place where Greek athletes trained for and practiced wrestling, the pankration, and sometimes boxing. The palaestra at Olympia was built sometime in the third century BC.
It is north of the gymnasion. It is square. Its sides are each about 66 meters long. Its door is in the northwest corner. The lower part of the outer walls were made of stone and the upper part of brick. Inside was a sand-covered yard open to the sky. This yard was surrounded on all four sides with colonnades of Doric columns. In bad weather, the athletes practiced under these colonnades.
Off these colonnades were rooms where the athletes dressed and undressed, rubbed themselves with olive oil, dusted themselves with powder or sand, and met friends. There was a tub (1.5 meters deep) in the corner of the yard that was used for cold baths. There were rooms for the storage of oil and equipment.
In 1955–56, the German Archaeological Institute partly restored the palaestra. Complete restoration is not possible because many of the columns have been completely destroyed.
Palaestra
Palaestra
Columns of the Palaestra
Colonnade, court (left) and rooms (right)
Palaestra is No. 21 on left
Base of a column
Palaestra At Olympia Media
Grandiose (Corinthian) entrance building to the gymnasion, palaestra on left, dromoi on right.
North end of dromoi in the gymnasion. The portico here is believed by some to have been a covered alternative to the uncovered running track for use when it rains. If not that then it shelters spectators or anyone: athletes or trainers, from the sun. North entrance to park seen on upper right. On the far left are modern walls delineating the excavation from private land.
The south stoa of the gymnasion shown running into the brush on the left bank of the Kladeos, as though terminated by it.
Step-up to the raised portico at the gymnasion of Olympia. Before this step is the remains of a water channel.
From a 1914 translation of Vitruvius. The archaeological gymnasion to the left is guesswork, as the excavation ends along the west side of the palaistra, and further west is the river. The xysta are also guesswork.
Fairly intact Roman baths at Bath, Great Britain, which was never abandoned
Portrait of Herodes Atticus. Roman artwork.
Kryovrisi, Elis, in the mountains north of Olympia, in the winter. The mountains are totally snow-covered.
References
- Photinos, Sypros (1982), Olympia, Olympic Publications, Athens, Greece: Pan. & Theo. Agridiotis, pp. 27–28