PANTHEON

This was my 5th visit to Rome (1965, 1966, 1992 with kids, 2012 with Doug, and now) and I have yet to see the Pantheon. This is the oldest, best preserved Roman building. In Roman times it was a temple to their many gods. Then it was converted to a Christian church. It has an opening in the top of the dome (the oculus, or eye-in-the-sky - the only light source in the building) that last week, at Pentecost, rose petals were dropped through the opening to represent the fire that came down on the Apostles to inspire them to go out and preach Christianity. We missed it!! Didn’t know about it until after the fact! The oculus is completely open and 30 feet across. The 1800 year old floor - with 80 % of it’s original stones surviving - has holes in it and slants toward the edges to let the rainwater drain. 

Michelle and I went once to try to get in and the (on Sunday) and the line was very long! So we decided to skip it and come back another day. This time the line was short and we got right in. I can’t imagine how bad the tourist crowds are in Rome during the high season - May is just the beginning and they were pretty overwhelming at every site, especially on the weekend. 

Raphael the artist is buried here. There are many beautiful statues and painting around the sides. The first two kings of Italy, Victor Emmanuel and Umberto are also buried here. The ceiling/dome was used for the inspiration for Brunelleschi’s Duomo in Florence, Michelangelo’s St. Peter’s as well as the Capitol in Washington, DC. 

At the entrance are the 40-foot single-piece granite columns (quarried in Egypt and shipped down the Nile and across the Mediterranean) that show the scale the ancient Romans built on. The Greek-style roof says M.Agrippa built it but it was in fact build by Emperor Hadrian in AD 120 who gave credit to a builder of an earlier structure. This was a temple dedicated to all (pan) of the gods (these). Marcus Agrippa was the son-in-law of Augustus and he built the original in 27 BC. But after a couple of fires, it was rebuilt by Hadrian. After the fall of Rome, it became a Christian church (from “all the gods” to “all the martyrs”) I read somewhere that bones of Christian martyrs were removed from catacombs and buried here when it became a church. 

This time the crowds weren’t huge and we were able to have a pleasant visit. We saw the holes in the floor below the oculus where the rain that comes in can drain away. We went outside to get a photo with the fountain in the foreground and the pillars in the background. Nice visit!