Platonic Academy

Coordinates: 37°59′33″N 23°42′29″E / 37.99250°N 23.70806°E / 37.99250; 23.70806

The Academy (Ancient Greek: Ἀκαδημία) was founded by Plato (428/427 BC – 348/347 BC) in ca. 387 BC in Athens. Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC) studied there for twenty years (367 BC – 347 BC) before founding his own school, the Lyceum. The Academy persisted throughout the Hellenistic period as a skeptical school, until coming to an end after the death of Philo of Larissa in 83 BC. Although philosophers continued to teach Plato's philosophy in Athens throughout the Roman era, it was not until 410 AD that a revived Academy was established as a center for Neoplatonism, persisting until 529 AD when it was finally closed by Justinian I.

The Platonic Academy has been cited by historians as the first higher learning institution in the Western world.

Site

Before the Akademia was a school, and even before Cimon enclosed its precincts with a wall, it contained a sacred grove of olive trees dedicated to Athena, the goddess of wisdom, outside the city walls of ancient Athens. The archaic name for the site was Hekademia (Ἑκαδήμεια), which by classical times evolved into Akademia and was explained, at least as early as the beginning of the 6th century BC, by linking it to an Athenian hero, a legendary "Akademos".

Old Academy (Munich)

Die Old Academy (German: Alte Akademie), also called Wilhelminum, is a building in the center of Munich, Germany. Dating from the 16th century, it has a Renaissance facade and four inner courtyards.

History

William V, Duke of Bavaria ordered the construction of a building for the college and the school of the Jesuits next to his St. Michael's Church. The college was established 1583-1590. It is unclear who designed the building, but it was probably as Friedrich Sustris.

After the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1773 the building became a cantonment for cadets of the army. From 1783 to 1826, it housed the Court Library and Archives, and then a school of painting and sculpture (hence the designation "Academy"). From 1826 to 1840, the Ludwig Maximilian University had its temporary domicile in the building. After severe destruction during the Second World War (1944) it was rebuilt by Josef Wiedemann to house the Bavarian Statistical Office.

Coordinates: 48°08′20″N 11°34′11″E / 48.13889°N 11.56972°E / 48.13889; 11.56972