Roma | The Resting Place of Many Famous Italians

This is the Pantheon. In Greek, Pantheion means “honor all gods“. It is said to have been built by Marcus Agrippa, in the reign of Augustus. There is a lot of debate as to what the story is to this Roman temple. Since Rome was subject to a couple of attacks and sacks over time, the Pantheon was destroyed and rebuilt many times.

After the fall of the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Emperor Phocus gave the Pantheon to Pope Boniface IV. He converted it to a Christian temple, consecrated it to St. Mary the Martyr May 13, 609. Since then, it has been used as a final resting place of many important Italian figures like Raphael (Raffaello), King Vittorio Emmanuele II, King Umberto I, and his wife Margherita after whom the pizza was named.

So let’s talk about the structure of this building. The main part of this temple is the dome, or rotunda. It was built by creating a ring of voussoirs, or elements for arches. The weight of the massive dome is held by the barrel vaults in the wall.

The dome has a center hole that on April 21st, which is the day that legend says Rome was founded, illuminates the metal on the entrance (exterior shown below). Folklore also says that the Pantheon is built on the place where Romulus ascended to heaven.

Il Portico, or the porch, originally had a set of stairs leading up to it, but later construction leveled them. The columns are 39 ft. tall and 5 ft. in diameter. Each weighs about 60 tons and is made from grey granite quarried in Egypt.

There are niches in the walls on the back of the porch which were probably designed to display statues of various gods or Roman emperors. It is likely that they were Julius Caesar, Augustus Caesar, and Agrippa or the Capitoline Triad.

The Pantheon is free to enter and closes at 7 pm. Amanda and I visited this right about time for it to close. About 30 minutes before close, people start to leave the Pantheon. We were able to walk through the doors with no line, and we could move about pretty freely. The way the sun sets in Rome made the lighting perfect for some shots of the exterior, as well. For more information about the Pantheon, click this link!