Pantheon

Related civilization: Imperial Rome.

Date: constructed 27 b.c.e.–c. 121 c.e.

Locale: Campus Martius in the city of Rome

Pantheon

The Pantheon, long believed a temple to “all the gods” (pan theon), was originally part of Augustus’s plan to rebuild Rome in his image. Designed first by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, friend and general of Augustus whose inscription still fills the architrave above the portico, the monumental building was finished in 25 bce; fire destroyed both it and its replacement. The second replacement was completed a century later around 121 ce by the philhellene emperor Hadrian. That emperor envisioned it as a personal Pythagorean philosophical summation of what a Roman monument should entail and mean, with its Greek name and cosmopolitan Roman structure, as well as an imperial statement of power.

Consisting of three main architectural components—a portico, or porch, connected to a cylindrical drum in the cella, or main temple structure, and surmounted by a rotunda, or dome—the Pantheon was constructed of materials including brick, a type of concrete made with volcanic material and seawater, tufa, basalt, pumice, granite (columns), and leaded bronze (roof), with much of the structure veneered in marble. Hadrian intended mathematical polygons to be harmoniously seen—although the portico is not as carefully integrated with the drum—in the triangle of pedimental portico roof, rectangle of portico, and hemisphere of roof. The roof actually becomes a full sphere; the space between the roof and marble floor can be realized as a perfect 44-meter (48-yard) sphere, extending across the 44-meter width of the unusually cylindrical cella. The well-engineered foundations are of basalt, and the walls are of tufa, brick, and concrete. The coffered ceiling of light pumice is covered with leaded bronze sheets, which may at one time have been painted. There is also an oculus, or aperture, 9 meters (10 yards) long in the ceiling—open to sky—that was meant to mirror the round heaven. The marble inlaid opus sectile floor contains stone from all over the empire, including purple imperial porphyry and yellow Numidian marble in repeated squares and circles that echo the structural shapes.

After Rome became Christianized, the Pantheon became part of the Church of Santa Maria Rotunda, consecrated by command of the Byzantine emperor Phocas in 609 ce. A church bell tower was added during the medieval period, and a fountain was erected in the piazza outside in the late 1500s. Bronze from the beams was refashioned into weapons in the seventeenth century. The seventeenth-century dual towers that had replaced the medieval bell tower were removed in the mid-nineteenth century.

The Pantheon contains the tombs of Raphael and two Italian kings, which obscure the numerous original internal Roman apses containing shrines for major and minor gods. The entire internal area of the monument was 1,520 square meters (1,818 square yards) without any reinforcing support, and the internal diameter of its rotunda dome was not eclipsed until the twentieth century, although it was attempted unsuccessfully in the Duomo of Florence (42 meters, or 46 yards) in 1430 and by Saint Peter’s Basilica (also 42 meters) in Rome in 1564. The impressive and unusual building also inspired later visual artists, including Giovanni Battista Piranesi and Giovanni Paolo Pannini.

Pantheon Today

As part of the historic city of Rome, the Pantheon was designated a World Heritage Site in 1980. The ancient building continues to attract millions of tourists. In 2017, the tourism ministry proposed a nominal entry fee for tourists, starting in May 2018, to cover maintenance and security costs; critics argued that a ticket booth necessary to execute the plan would mar the aesthetics and noted that no other churches in the city had such fees. The plan was later put on hold.

The massive Pantheon is undoubtedly the most impressive surviving Roman monumental building and the only one in continuous use.

Bibliography

Adam, Jean-Pierre. Roman Construction: Material and Techniques. 3d ed. London: Routledge, 1994.

Knapton, Sarah. "Secret of How Roman Concrete Survived Tidal Battering for 2,000 Years Revealed." The Telegraph, 3 July 2017, www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/07/03/secret-roman-concrete-survived-tidal-battering-2000-years-revealed. Accessed 16 May 2019.

Macdonald, William L. The Pantheon: Design, Meaning and Progeny. Reprint. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1998.

Piranesi in Rome, Wellesley College, omeka.wellesley.edu/piranesi-rome. Accessed 16 May 2019.

Stierling, Henry. The Pantheon. Vol. 1 in The Roman Empire. Cologne, Germany: Taschen, 1996.