“Archaeologists Unveil Incredible 2,200-Year-Old Greek Lecture Hall in Sicily: What Secrets of Ancient Education Will It Reveal?”
“In ancient Greek cities, the gymnasium was the central place where young men were physically and intellectually prepared for their future roles as citizens — it was a hybrid of a fitness center and a school. From the 4th century B.C.E. onward, cities built large complexes with running tracks, bathing facilities, and rooms where young men could train and study,” researchers wrote in an announcement from Freie Universität Berlin.
However, archaeologists uncovered way more than an ancient fitness center, turning up evidence of a large lecture hall — the oldest one yet found in the Greek world.
Uncovering The Oldest Known Classroom In The Ancient Greek World
S. Kay/Freie Universität BerlinA researcher conducts a survey just south of the gymnasium.
In 2022, researchers began a detailed survey of the gymnasium site. After three years of excavation and analysis, their efforts yielded a remarkable discovery in March 2025: the ruins of an ancient classroom.
This lecture hall featured eight semicircular rows of seating, enough to accommodate around 200 people. The classroom’s design facilitated classes, performances, and competitions. Ancient Greek inscriptions on stone benches show that it was likely built between the 1st and 2nd centuries B.C.E., making it the oldest gymnasium auditorium of its kind that’s ever been found.
Rolf Sporleder/FU Berlin, Institute of Classical ArchaeologyThe lecture hall’s eight rows of seats could hold up to 200 people.
“In the semicircular orchestra of the lecture hall…two large blocks bearing a Greek inscription were found. The letters were engraved into the white-plastered, soft limestone and highlighted with red paint. Mention is made of a gymnasiarch, the head of the gymnasium, and the renovation of the roof of the apodyterium (changing room), which a generous citizen financed from his own resources and dedicated to the gymnasium’s gods, Hermes and Heracles,” researchers explained.
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