The spaces devoted to educational Gymnastics in Italy during the second half of the 19th century: logistical needs and symbolic meanings

The contribution is the abstract of a presentation on the spaces devoted to physical education in Italy during the second half of the 19th century. In that period, the spread of Gymnastics in Italy created a remarkable transformation of spaces, which, in light of the attention paid by historiography to the material culture of education, are analyzed not only in terms of their physical characteristics: this transformation, in fact, was not merely a response to logistical need, but also conveyed symbolic and thus pedagogical meanings.