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In 27 b.C., Agrippa, son-in-law and
architect of Augustus, erected the Pantheon on the site
where Romolus according to the legend ascended to Heaven
during a ceremony. It was a common temple rectangular
in shape, medium size, conceived as a place of worship
for various divinities. Through the years the temple
suffered fires and other disasters, it was restaured
several times till the final reconstruction by the emperor-architect
Hadrian between 118 and 128 A.D..
The pronaos with its sixteen columns,
the enlargement of the rotunda and the dome, the largest
existing one built in brickwork up to our time, are
for sure by Hadrian. Hadrian himself wishing to commemorate
Agrippa replaced word for word on the temple’s
façade Agrippa’s original inscription:
“Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius, Consul for the
tird time, built”.
In 608 the emperor Foca handed it
over to Pope Boniface IV who consacreted it as catholic
church: Sancta Maria ad Martyres, masterpiece of the
Roman architecture and first example of pagan temple
transformed into catholic church. The temple stood originally
on a base having a high staircase surrounded by a colonnaded
portico on a lower level than the modern one. Originally
the dome was externally covered by gilt bronze tiles
stolen in 663 by the Emperor of East Constant II and
later substituted by a lead covering in 735. The same
happened to the bronze covering of the porticoes which
was removed by the pope Urban VII and used for the casting
of cannons and for the baldachin of St.Peter. Not many
things were added to the original architecture: the
church decorations, the tombs of great artists (Raphael)
and those of the Kings of Italy.
Bernini added two ugly bell towers
called “asses’ears” demolished at
the end of the 1800’s. Inside the Pantheon there
are also honorary busts which Pius VII had removed and
transported to the Capitole, inside the Gallery (collection
of busts of illustrious men) Nowadays the lack of coverings
reveals the original brickwork structure with weight
and thrust which support the ring. The pronaos hides
the cupola from sights till the entrance in the space
determined by a sphere which can be inscribed in a cylinder,
finished and unfinished together.
The floor is covered with polychromatic
marbles so as the walls which support the huge cupola
culminating in the great eye at the summit, 9mt wide,
which illuminated the whole interior and served for
the smoke of the sacrifices.The axes of the building
contemplates a small divertion from the traditional
north-south direction: every year on the 21st June at
12,00am, summer equinoce, the sun through the eye invests
the visitors entering from the main door |
