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Pantheon
Rome and surrounding
Architecture
Architecture

There is an interesting fact – in Catholic Rome is located the ancient pagan temple dedicated to all the Rome deities, it has been preserved to the present days.

Pantheon could be destroyed in the Epoque of Christianity rise if it would not be saved by the emperor Phocas. He came to Rome by accident and offered the Pantheon building to the Pope. Since that time it has been officially considered as the cathedral of the Virgin Mary and all the martyrs. 

It is interesting that the temple has been preserved till the present almost in an original look – even the doors have remained. The only thing that was changed is the bronze decoration of the portico. In the 17th century, by order of Pope Urban VIII Barberini, the decorative elements were removed and melted to the canopy for the Saint Peter’s Cathedral and the cannons for the Saint Angel’s Castle.

Pantheon is called Rotunda – construction in the form of a cylinder with a dome. In the entrance, you can see 16 granite columns in the Corinthian style. Inside the Pantheon, there are no windows. The sunlight comes inside owing to the hole in the dome 9 meters diameter. 

It was made not because the workers had not any possibility to install windows. According to the project, the only hole (Eye) should symbolize the unity of all the deities. 

Inside the covering of the dome is decorated with many little deepening. There were 140 of them. They had not just a decoration function, but also a practical one. The thing is that the Pantheon weight was rather big – 5000 tons. But as the height of the vault increased, its thickness and mass decreased. So, if, for example, the thickness of the concrete was 6 meters at the base, it was just 1.5 meters at the eye. 

Previously, around the temple were the statues of deities. Each of them was illuminated with sunlight from the Pantheon eye during the year. But we cannot see these sculptures today. Now there are the works of the sculptors and painters of the 18th century. 

By the way, the great Italian painters of that time loved Pantheon. For example, Michelangelo called it a creation of angels, and Raphael Santi desired to be buried in the temple. And his wish came true.

Address: Piazza della Rotonda

Published by

Uliana Vedenina

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