Description of the attraction
The oldest building of the Pantheon - the temple of all gods - was erected in 27 BC by Mark Agrippa. Between the years 118-128, the temple was thoroughly rebuilt under the Emperor Hadrian and acquired the forms that it retains to this day.
The inscription on the architrave reads: "Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius, the Third Consul, did". It was left by Adrian, who did not put his name on any of the monuments. The reconstruction, carried out according to the project of Apollodorus of Damascus, significantly changed the original appearance of the building. A vast portico, formed by eight columns of gray granite, has been preserved. Two columns of red granite stand behind the first, third, sixth and eighth columns, forming three aisles. The tympanum was once adorned with a bronze eagle with a crown. The ceiling of the portico was also decorated with bronze, removed at the direction of Pope Urban VIII Barberini, from where the famous expression came: "What the barbarians did not do, Barberini did." The crown dome, a true masterpiece of engineering, was built entirely on timber formwork and is the widest dome ever built.
Inside the building, there are six niches on the sides, each of which is framed by two columns. The dome is decorated with five rows of caissons decreasing upward, with the exception of the last row around a round hole, the so-called "eye of the Pantheon", 9 meters in diameter, through which a stream of light pours inward.
Now the Pantheon is a national mausoleum. The artist Raphael was the first to express his desire to be buried here. Later, other famous personalities were buried here, including representatives of the Savoy royal dynasty.
