New important finds in the Valley of the Temples reveal details of the past of the city which in 2025 is the Italian capital of culture. In the context of the last research campaign, a structure emerged in the Gymnasium area of Agrigento that probably had the function of auditorium and changing room, as evidenced by Greek inscriptions. Elements that will allow you to know the history of the structure more in -depthly which is the largest and most relevant in the western Mediterranean by size and chronology.
“Archaeological research represents a priority for the Region, both with a view to enhancement and protection of our cultural and monumental heritage – says the Councilor of Cultural Heritage and Sicilian Identity Francesco Paolo Scarpinato -. These new discoveries confirm what role the city played in antiquity and how much there is still to be brought to light, so that it is a heritage shared with future generations “.
The area had already been the subject of excavations between 1960 and 2005 and the research activities are divided in 2020 in collaboration between the Freie Universität of Berlin, the Polytechnic of Bari and the Archaeological and Landscape Park of the Valley of the Temples of Agrigento. The team is directed by Monika Trümper, Thomas Lappi and Antonello Fino and is coordinated, for the park by Maria Concetta Parello. After a first geophysical prospecting campaign, three excavation campaigns were carried out between 2022 and 2024 which had documented the existence of a monumental gym thanks also to the presence of five tiles on which a stamp with the letters “γυμ (for γυμνασιου, gymnasium) appears.
The fourth excavation campaign led to the discovery of a rectangular environment with radial sessions that opened on a particularly significant environment, the largest of the gym, 23 x 11 meters, with docks along the perimeter and a clay floor. The most probable hypothesis is that the latter was the Apodyterion, the locker room of the gymnasium that also served as the auditorium for intellectual formation, a hypothesis supported by the discovery of two blocks with a Greek inscription that reports “(τ) ου αποδυτη (ριου) (of the APOodyterion)”, with letters highlighted in red on a white. The two blocks, which also speak of a gymnasium (prominent officer of the gymnasium) who financed the renovation of the roof of the structure with their own funds and dedicated it to Ermes and Heracles, the divinities of the Greek gymnasiums, were in collapse inside the semicircular orchestra of the auditorium, where once teachers and students performed in front of an audience, connected precisely with the large room. The complex would anticipate at least two centuries similar structures such as that of Pergamum in Asia Minor and makes the pedagogical architecture used in Agrigento extremely advanced, given that the gymnasium was built in the second century BC and subsequently renovated in the Augustan era (31 AC – 14 DC).
“These discoveries – comments the director of the Archaeological and Landscape Park of the Valley of the Temples Roberto Sciaratta – are contributing significantly to redefining the knowledge of the gymnasium of Agrigento, highlighting their width and complexity and bringing out new hypotheses on the role that this place had in the cultural and social life of the ancient city. The research will continue to further deepen the structure and functions of the complex ».