| What makes it historical? |
Pantheon translates from Greek into “all gods,” and this temple was designed to house a bunch of them, like Venus, Mars, and the deified Julius Caesar! This mighty temple replaced the two that burnt down before it and opened in 125 CE under the reign of Hadrian, who honored the creator of the first Pantheon, Marcus Agrippa, with an inscription over the door!
The Pantheon isn’t ornate on the outside. In fact, it could be the first Classical building with an interior designed to surpass its exterior! It has a huge concrete dome (the largest unsupported one in the world) that opens to the sky and was once adorned with bright colors: bronze, purple, and yellow! It’s also unique in that its diameter is exactly the same as the distance from the floor to the summit!
This is the best preserved building from Roman times, and no one is quite sure how it survived the fall of Rome. However, it endured into modern times thanks to its conversion in 609 AD, to a Christian church honoring St. Mary of the Martyrs! Though church services are no longer still held there, it is the burial site of Italian royalty 1870 to 1946, and the famed painter, Raphael! |
