Gymnasion (Pergamon)
The gymnasium of Pergamon was an extensive one in the 2nd century BC. This facility was built in the 3rd century BC and extended over three terraces and included numerous facilities for education and sports. Each of the terraces on the southern slope of the Acropolis of Pergamum contained sites for a specific area of the exercises and was possibly also intended for different age groups.
Terrace systems
Extensive preparatory work was necessary for the construction of the complex on the slope. Rock excavation on the one hand, the erection of complicated retaining wall systems and extensive backfill on the other hand had to be carried out to prepare the site. Staggering of up to three supporting walls, one behind the other and one above the other, with transverse walls and buttresses were built for this purpose. Large differences in level were overcome between the terraces, the lower of which was 62 meters above sea level , while the middle one was 70.50 meters and the upper one was 88.50 meters. Even the street-side retaining wall of the southern terrace, which began at street level at its eastern end, had to overcome 12 meters in height in its western part, for which the architects had two parallel walls built at a distance of 4 meters.
layout
The main entrance to the gymnasium in the form of a magnificent gate building was on the southeast corner of the lower terrace. From here you could reach the lower terrace directly, the middle one via a large podium staircase. The connection between the middle and upper terrace was only guaranteed by a narrow staircase on the east side of the terrace.
The small south-facing terrace, which was designed with an almost triangular floor plan, which was irregular due to the street layout, had almost no structural facilities and is addressed as a boys' gymnastics session.
The middle terrace was around 250 meters long and in its central area around 70 meters deep. A two-story hall stood on its north side , the space in front of it was vacant. To the east of the square rose a little, to the west is opening prostylos Corinthian order, except an altar numerous in the environment drawn up as votive offerings statues and inscriptions have been found. The rooms and exedra of the north hall in this area opened onto this small temple complex. At the transition from the upper to the middle gymnasium terrace was a covered, 7-meter-wide and 212-meter-long stadium , the so-called "basement stadium ". The middle terrace was primarily intended for running training in summer and winter.
The upper terrace, which is also the largest at 150 × 70 meters, was a courtyard surrounded by columned halls and other buildings, which alone measured around 36 × 74 meters. This complex, to be addressed as a palaestra , had a theater-shaped classroom behind its northern portico, probably from the Roman period, and a large ballroom in the middle. Other rooms of unclear function were accessible from the portico. In the west of this terrace, on an unworked, natural rock elevation, a south-facing Ionic temple of Anten stood as the central sanctuary of the high school. Numerous workpieces of the building testify that it was initially conceived as a Doric temple and was partly executed before it was built in the Ionic order towards the end of the 2nd century BC. Completed. The eastern area was built over by a thermal bath system in Roman times. Further Roman baths were built west of the Ionic temple.
literature
- Paul Schazmann: The Gymnasion. The temple precinct of Hera Basileia . de Gruyter, Berlin 1923 ( Antiquities of Pergamon . Vol. 6).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Gottfried Gruben : The temples of the Greeks . 3. Edition. Hirmer, Munich 1980, pp. 439-440.
- ↑ Antiquities of Pergamon . VI, p. 3.
- ↑ Antiquities of Pergamon . VI, p. 3.
- ↑ To the lower terrace: Antiquities of Pergamon . VI, pp. 5-6, 19-27.
- ↑ Antiquities of Pergamon . VI, pp. 40-43.
- ↑ To the middle terrace: Antiquities of Pergamon . VI, pp. 5, 28-43.
- ↑ To the upper terrace: Antiquities of Pergamon . VI, pp. 4, 43-79.