Palaestra

The palaestra at Olympia, Greece

A palaestra (/pəˈlstrə/ or /-ˈl-/;[1] also (chiefly British) palestra; ‹See Tfd›Greek: παλαίστρα)[2] was any site of an ancient Greek wrestling school. Events requiring little space, such as boxing and wrestling, took place there. Palaestrae functioned both independently and as a part of public gymnasia; a palaestra could exist without a gymnasium, but no gymnasium existed without a palaestra.