European Ribbon

📖  Introduction

One could say that the Pantheon has always been in Rome; it’s almost unimaginable to gaze upon a structure that has stood in the same spot for over 2,000 years. How many people have stepped inside its walls, how many have spoken of it? How many buildings from our time have even a chance of surviving half as long?

The Church That Saved the Temple

The Pantheon is practically the only ancient building to survive into our time in pristine condition. This was possible because, in 609 AD, the Byzantine Emperor Phocas gifted it to Pope Boniface IV, who transformed the interior into a Christian church dedicated to Santa Maria ad Martyres, or St. Mary of the Martyrs. According to tradition, bones of Christian martyrs were brought here from catacombs and cemeteries and buried beneath the altar, giving the temple its name.

Yet, the Pantheon is also remarkable for being the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world, capable of holding a sphere with a diameter of 142 feet. Its name comes from the Greek words pan (all) and theoi (gods), meaning “a place dedicated to all gods”.

Who Built the Pantheon?

The Pantheon was originally commissioned by Marcus Agrippa in 27 BC. He was a contemporary, friend, and closest collaborator of Emperor Augustus, eventually becoming his son-in-law. Thanks largely to Agrippa, Octavian defeated Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium. After amassing wealth from his military victories, Agrippa returned to Rome, purchased land on the Field of Mars, and began his third consulship. He then embarked on constructing baths, aqueducts, a naumachia (naval battle arena), and temples. The original Pantheon had a rectangular shape but did not survive Rome’s great fire in the 1st century AD. Only the rectangular portico with its colonnade and Agrippa’s dedicatory inscription on the front pediment remain: M • AGRIPPA • L • F • COS • TERTIVM • FECIT—translated as “Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius, built this during his third consulship.”

The temple was later reconstructed under Emperor Trajan and completed under Emperor Hadrian around 125 AD. The identity of its architect is uncertain, though it is often attributed to the brilliant Greek Apollodorus of Damascus, who was active in Rome at that time, working under both emperors.

An Extraordinary, Perfect Structure

The new Pantheon was constructed as a cylinder topped with a dome, connected to the portico through a pronaos. The original rectangular portico with its colonnade and inscription was preserved. In Hadrian’s time, the temple was dedicated to seven planetary deities: Apollo (the god of the Sun), Diana (the goddess of the Moon), Venus, Saturn, Jupiter, Mercury, and Mars. These deities symbolized heavenly harmony and perfection.

The Pantheon is a rotunda, a circular building with a diameter of 143 feet (43.6 meters) and the same height. Today, it stands in a slight depression, but originally, the ground level was much lower. The portico with its pediment was elevated, with stairs leading up to it. Sixteen columns of gray granite, each carved from monolithic blocks in Egypt, were shipped to Rome.

The building’s exterior wall is divided into three sections, each using different materials for a unique shade. The lowest level is a mix of concrete, tuff, and travertine; the middle section uses concrete, tuff, and brick; and the highest, lightest level is made of concrete and crushed brick. 

In ancient times, the pediment was decorated with bronze embellishments, likely featuring an imperial eagle, floral ornaments, and beams. Today, numerous holes remain where these decorations once were, resembling bullet marks. In 1625, Pope Urban VIII Barberini ordered the removal of the bronze for casting cannons for Castel Sant’Angelo. To avoid public outrage, he claimed the metal was needed to complete Bernini’s twisted columns above St. Peter’s tomb in St. Peter’s Basilica. This led to the infamous saying, Quod non fecerunt barbari, fecerunt Barberini—”What the barbarians did not destroy, Barberini did.”

The Pantheon’s doors are equally impressive. They are the most magnificent among the oldest surviving doors in Rome, standing nearly 25 feet tall (7.5 meters) and 15 feet wide (4.5 meters), with a weight close to 20 tons.

The Interior

The Pantheon’s interior captivates with its brightness, even though there are no windows. The only light enters through a 30-foot-wide (9-meter) opening in the dome, known as the oculus. This opening has never been covered, allowing rain to enter. However, an ideal drainage system in the floor efficiently channels away any water.

Each year on Pentecost, which falls on a Sunday, 50 days after Easter, rose petals are dropped from the oculus onto the congregation below. The Pantheon also serves as a solar calendar. Every April 21, the birthday of Rome, light from the oculus shines directly above the temple doors at noon. Daily, the movement of sunlight across the space acts like an inverted sundial, marking time by light instead of shadow.

The extraordinary dome of the Pantheon appears light despite its weight of over 5,000 tons. It’s no wonder the dome became the archetype for all domes built in subsequent centuries, both religious and secular. The dome was cast from a mix of concrete and aggregate, with heavier materials at the base and lighter ones toward the top. Its thickness decreases from nearly 20 feet (6 meters) at the walls to around 5 feet (1.5 meters) near the oculus.

The dome is decorated with five perfect rings of 28 coffers, a design chosen for its symbolic and numerical significance. The number 28 is the sum of the natural numbers from 1 to 7, with 7 being a mystical and divine number, representing the days of creation. The interior design continues with circles and squares, contributing to a sense of harmony, complemented by remarkable acoustics.

The walls supporting the dome, in some areas over 20 feet thick, contain niches that once held statues of the gods worshipped here. Today, many niches house tombs of Italian kings and renowned artists and architects, including the great painter and architect Raphael, his assistant Perino del Vaga, the notable architect Baldassare Peruzzi, and the tombs of King Victor Emmanuel II and his successor, Humbert I.

Piazza della Rotonda

The Pantheon is located on Piazza della Rotonda, where a fountain with an obelisk stands. Together with the Pantheon in the background, this creates a unified composition, leading many to mistakenly call it “Pantheon Square.” For years, this piazza served as a fish market, with vendors selling their goods almost at the church’s doorstep, weaving between the ancient columns. The first attempt to dignify this space was made in the mid-15th century by Pope Eugene IV. Later, Pope Gregory XIII added a fountain designed by Giacomo della Porta. In the early 18th century, the square gained an Egyptian obelisk, known as the Macuteo Obelisk. Erected under Pope Clement XI Albani, it bears his papal emblem—a star with eight points above a trio of mountain peaks. Named “Macuteo” due to its previous location near the Church of St. Macutus in the 14th century. It is one of 13 monolithic obelisks in Rome. Standing over 20 feet tall (6 meters), and nearly 50 feet (15 meters) with its base and cross, it was carved in Egypt during the time of Ramses, later brought to Rome by Emperor Domitian as a decoration for the temple of the Egyptian goddess Isis.

It’s hard to imagine today, but the marketplace habit was so strong that trade continued in the square well into the 19th century. Travelers in that era described Piazza della Rotonda as loud and bustling, filled not only with fish vendors but also sellers of exotic birds. Finally, in 1847, the square was paved with basalt cobblestones called sampietrini. In 1906, Italian emigrants from Buenos Aires funded a wooden parquet flooring sourced from Argentine forests, which completely muffled the noise of cartwheels and horse hooves.

Interestingly, one of Rome’s earliest hotels, Locanda del Montone, was established on this piazza, with records mentioning it as early as 1467.

🚶‍♀️‍➡️Visit

Tickets can be purchased directly from the external kiosks located on the piazza near the entrance. Entry is allowed within a designated time slot. Children under 18 enter for free.