Pantheon, Roman temple in Pigna district, Rome, Italy
The Pantheon is a Roman temple in the Pigna district of central Rome. The structure features a cylindrical brick rotunda measuring 43 meters in diameter, crowned by a hemispherical concrete vault with a central opening of 9 meters as the sole light source.
Marcus Agrippa built an initial temple here in 27 BCE, which was destroyed by fire under Emperor Domitian. Emperor Hadrian had the current building erected between 113 and 125 CE, and Pope Boniface IV consecrated it as a Christian church in 609, preventing medieval looting.
The name comes from the Greek Pantheion, "of all the gods"; Cassius Dio suggested it referred to the many statues of deities or to the dome's resemblance to the heavens. Since 609 it has served as the church of Santa Maria ad Martyres, and Romans long called it la Rotonna, after which the surrounding piazza and street are named.
Entry is free and the building sits centrally in the old town, just a few minutes walk from Piazza Navona and Trevi Fountain. Visitors should arrive early in the morning to avoid crowds and wear modest clothing as this remains an active church.
The vault was cast using Roman concrete with pozzolanic volcanic ash and graduated material layers, employing lighter pumice stone at the apex to reduce weight. This ancient technique allowed the unreinforced structure to endure nearly two millennia without steel reinforcement or modern support systems.
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