Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
after being struck by lightning. The emperor Hadrian rebuilt it once again, and it's this
version that you see today.
Hadrian's temple was dedicated to the classical gods - hence the name Pantheon, a de-
rivation of the Greek words
pan
(all) and
theos
(god) - but in AD 608 it was consecrated
as a Christian church in honour of the Madonna and all martyrs after the Byzantine em-
peror Phocus donated it to Pope Boniface IV. (Its official name is now the Basilica di
Santa Maria ad Martyres.) Thanks to this consecration the Pantheon was spared the worst
of the medieval plundering that reduced many of Rome's ancient buildings to their bare
bones. However, it wasn't totally safe from plundering hands. The gilded-bronze roof tiles
were removed and, in the 17th century, the Barberini Pope Urban VIII had the portico's
bronze ceiling melted down to make 80 canons for Castel Sant'Angelo and the baldachino
over the main altar of St Peter's Basilica.
During the Renaissance the Pantheon was much admired - Brunelleschi used it as in-
spiration for his Duomo in Florence and Michelangelo studied it before designing the cu-
pola over St Peter's Basilica - and it became an important burial chamber. Today you'll
find the tomb of the artist Raphael here, alongside those of kings Vittorio Emanuele II and
Umberto I.
Exterior
Originally, the Pantheon was on a raised podium, its entrance facing onto a rectangular
porticoed piazza. Nowadays, the dark-grey pitted exterior faces the busy, cafe-lined Piazza
della Rotonda. Although it's somewhat the worse for wear, the facade is still an imposing
sight. The monumental entrance portico has 16 Corinthian columns, each 13m high and
made of Egyptian granite, supporting a triangular pediment. Little remains of the ancient
decor, although rivets and holes in the brickwork indicate where the marble-veneer panels
were once placed, and the towering 20-tonne bronze doors are 16th-century restorations of
the originals.
Interior
Although impressive from outside, it's only when you get inside the Pantheon that you
can really appreciate its full size. With light streaming in through the oculus (the 8.7m-
diameter hole in the centre of the dome), the cylindrical marble-clad interior seems abso-
lutely vast, an effect that was deliberately designed to cut worshippers down to size in the
face of the gods.
Opposite the entrance is the church's main altar, over which hangs a 7th-century icon of
the Madonna and Child. To the left (as you look in from the entrance ) is the tomb of
