Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Ancient Monuments & Medieval Churches
Driven by the wealth and ambition of their emperors, ancient Rome's architects and master
builders created the greatest city the Western world had ever seen. In successive centuries,
Christianity took root and the early popes led a bout of medieval church building.
Colosseum
Built in the 1st century AD as imperial Rome was approaching the pinnacle of its power,
the Colosseum (
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) bears many of the hallmarks of ancient Roman architecture:
arches (its first three tiers consist of 80 arches framed by Doric, Ionic and Corinthian
columns), the use of various building materials (concrete, brick, travertine and tufa rock),
and unprecedented scale. During the imperial age, the Romans built more than 200 amphi-
theatres across their empire as venues for gladiatorial games, animal shows, public execu-
tions and chariot races.
Pantheon
The use of the dome, one of the Romans' most important architectural innovations, finds
perfect form in the Pantheon (
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). A squat rotunda , preceded by a columned por-
tico and crowned by the largest unreinforced concrete dome ever built, the building was re-
volutionary in both concept and execution. The main technical challenge was how to keep
the dome's weight down. To do this, the architects circled the cupola with five bands of
decorative coffers (the rectangular recesses you see on the inside of the dome) and calib-
rated the concrete to ensure that it was lighter at the top than at the base. In the centre, the
8.7m-diameter oculus acts as a compression ring, absorbing and redistributing the huge
structural forces centred on the dome's apex.
Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore
This hulking cathedral (
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) exemplifies the early Christian basilicas that were be-
ing built in the 4th and 5th centuries. Although it has been much altered over the centuries,
it is the only one of Rome's four papal basilicas to retain its original 5th-century layout.
Signature features include the vast central nave, delineated by two rows of 20 columns, and
the mosaics in the triumphal arch and nave. Mosaic decor was typical of early Christian
design and many of the churches built in this period have stunning mosaics.
