Roman Temple Pantheon is also called the temple of all the gods and is one of the oldest man-made buildings in the world still standing and in use. It is the best-preserved and largest Roman building old building in the world with the original roof intact.
| Type | Ancient temple |
| Year | 126 AD |
| Getting there | Car, plane, train |
| When to visit | Anytime Entry is free |
| Location in Rome | Piazza della Rotonda, 00186 Roma RM, Italy |
| Official website | www.pantheonroma.com/en/ |
- Pantheon is one of the oldest Man-Made building in the world still standing and in use
- Oculus at the top of the Pantheon is the only source of light within it.
- Commissioned by Marcus Agrippa as a temple to all the gods of Ancient Rome, and rebuilt by Emperor Hadrian in about 126 AD
- It is the best-preserved and largest Roman building old building in the world with the original roof intact. Although the identity of the architect remains uncertain, many attributes to Apollodorus of Damascus.
- Its length is equal to the diameter, rising to just over 43 meters
- It has the largest dome in the world built of unreinforced concrete.
- The Pantheon façade is typical of a temple with columns and a gable porch 16
- Roman concrete was composed of a type of volcanic ash called pozzolana with superior properties of lime and pumice aggregate concrete, much easier than usual stone commonly used in the manufacture of concrete. The secret construction lies in reducing weight structure (thick 6 meters honeycomb dome box, arcs walls greenhouse relief, geometry ingenious and perfect dome and boxes and ribs boxes cupola directing forces of the dome to walls drum).
- In the Christian period, it was turned into a basilica to be saved from demolition
- Milan and New Zealand researchers have investigated how light enters the temple. They argue that the Romans built Pantheon back nearly 2,000 years, so the sun’s rays to illuminate the entrance just when the king was stepping inside the temple during the day which marks the equinox in March and September, and on April 21 the day Romans celebrated city, the date on which Rome was founded.
Pantheon – honor all Gods
- The word Pantheon is a Greek adjective meaning “honor all Gods”. In fact, the pantheon was first built as a temple to all gods.
- It is the best-preserved Ancient Roman monument. It is a bit of a mystery how the Pantheon managed to survive barbarian raids when all the rest of Roman monuments had been shattered. It is turning into a church in 609 AD that has a lot to do with it at a later time, but also the structure itself is way ahead of its time. In fact, the exact composition of the material is still unknown and appears to be structurally similar to modern-day concrete! Whatever the reasons are, the Pantheon is the only structure of its age and size that has successfully survived the damage of time and gravity, still intact with all its splendor and beauty.
- The exact age of the pantheon remains unknown. The Roman legend tells that the original Pantheon was built on the very site and was dedicated to Romulus, their mythological founder after he ascended to heaven from that site. Most historians claim that Emperor Augustus’ right hand, Agrippa, built the first Pantheon in 27 BC. It burned in the great fire of 80 AD, was rebuilt by Emperor Domitian, but was struck by lightning and burned again in 110 AD. The Pantheon as we know it today was built in 120 AD by Emperor Hadrian Who was passionate about architecture and designed it together with Apollodorus of Damascus, a famous Greek architect of the time who unfortunately was executed by order of the Emperor, because of an argument about the design of the temple…
Pantheon – giant dome
- The most fascinating part of the Pantheon is its giant dome, with its famous hole in the top (The eye of the Pantheon, or oculus). The dome was the largest in the world for 1300 years and until today it remains the largest unsupported dome in the world! The diameter of the dome is 43.30 meters or 142ft (for comparison, the United States Capitol dome is 96 feet in diameter) and is in perfect proportion with the Pantheon by the fact that the distance from the floor to the top of the dome is exactly equal to its diameter. The great architectural achievement was due to the massive weight of the large dome. Roman engineers lightened the dome as much as possible; not only its thickness progressively decreases, but the materials used in the upper part of the dome were lighter with internal spaces within the dome walls. The decrease in thickness has the effect that while the interior of the ceiling is spherical, its exterior is slightly “flattened”. It is larger than the dome of St. Peter’s basilica but since it seems flattened from the outside it is hard to get a full sense of its dimension. The hole (oculus), 7.8 meters in diameter, is the only source of light and is the connection between the temple and the gods above. Rain occasionally fall through it, but the floor is slanted and drains the water if it manages to hit the floor. In practice, rain seldom falls inside the dome.
- The interior has the shape of a cylinder covered by a half of a sphere; the height of the cylinder is equal to the radius of the sphere and is 43.3 meters (142ft). There are no windows inside but the large oculus! The Pantheon now contains the tombs of the famous artist Raphael and of several Italian Kings and poets. The marble floor, which features a design consisting of a series of geometric patterns, is still the ancient Roman original. The history of Pantheon was forever changed during the reign of Pope Urban VIII, who melted down every scrap of bronze located upon the ceiling, outraging many Roman citizens.
16 massive Corinthian columns
- The 16 massive Corinthian columns supporting the portico weigh 60 tons each. They are 39 feet (11.8 m) tall, five feet (1.5 m) in diameter, and brought all the way from Egypt. These columns were dragged more than 100 km from the quarry to the Nile river on wooden sledges. They were floated by barge down the Nile River when the water level was high during the spring floods and then transferred to vessels to cross the Mediterranean Sea to the Roman port of Ostia. There, they were transferred back onto barges and pulled up the Tiber River to Rome. The Columns support a triangle pediment with an inscription attributing the Pantheon to Marcus Agrippa (“M•AGRIPPA•L•F•COS•TERTIUM•FECIT” meaning “It was built by Marcos Agrippa in his third consulate”). It is the only remain from the original temple built by Agrippa and it is believed that Hadrian left it as a gesture to his predecessor when he rebuilt the pantheon.
- A lighting effect can be viewed on April 21 when the midday sun strikes a metal grille above the doorway, saturating the courtyard outside with light. The Romans celebrated April 21 as the founding date of the city, and the impressive sight of their Emperor standing at the entrance of the Pantheon surrounded by the light coming from inside the pantheon might have been seen as something that, in effect, raised their emperor to the level of the gods and invited him in to join them.
- In the year 609, The Pantheon was the first pagan temple to be transformed into a church and therefore it was saved from being destroyed during the Middle Ages. Today it is a church dedicated to St. Mary of the Martyrs.
Fountain of the Pantheon
- In front of the Pantheon is the beautiful “Fountain of the Pantheon”. It was designed by famous architecture Giacomo Della Porta in 1575 and sculpted out of marble by Leonardo Sormani. In 1711, Pope Clement XI requested that the fountain be modified and had Filippo Barignoni design a new layout, which included a different basin, made of stone, and the obelisk of Ramses II set in the center on a plinth with four dolphins decorating the base.
Source: www.wikipedia.org, romeonsegway.com
