Why is the Pantheon so Famous?

This amazing building has been fascinating people for the last 2,000 years. But what is it exactly that attracts us to this temple/ monument/ church? As one of the most preserved buildings from antiquity, we think there are many reasons why the Pantheon is famous.

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Pro Tip: If you are planning a trip to Rome, you will be reading a lot about the various sites in the city. Bookmark this page so you can come back to it later and brush up on our knowledge of the Pantheon.

What Is It?

The word Pantheon translates to all-worship or all-gods depending on how you look at it.  Contrary to what many have written on the internet, the use of the building was not to worship all pagan gods. Pagan gods didn’t appreciate sharing a temple with other gods.

Some exceptions are for gods conjoined in their purposes like Castor & Pollux. Also, a deified couple like Antonius Pius and Faustina his wife share a temple. But in general, the Romans built temples individually dedicated to a single deity. This is a reason the Pantheon is so famous. Since we are just not sure what it was used for.

What the Roman used the Pantheon for is undocumented at best making any reason I provided mostly assumption or guess.  A strong theory from Professor of Archeology Amanda Claridge is that the Pantheon existed for the worship of Emperors yet to be deified.  It is no mystery that Romans did not like to worship Emperors as gods until after their death.  Claridge states in her Rome Archeological Guide, “the Pantheon provided a setting–not a temple in the conventional sense–in which the living emperor would appear in the company with the gods (including his own deified predecessors).

Construction & Reconstruction

One of the reasons the Pantheon is so famous is the amount of times it was rebuilt. According to Amanda Claridge, the Pantheon was first built between 27-25 BC but that building would not be recognizable today.  The first structure was built by Marcus Agrippa who was a Roman Consul under the first Emperor of Rome, Ceaser Augustus. The original structure was built primarily out of wood and subsequently burnt down about 100 years later in 80 AD.

Domitian took a second shot at it and the structure was struck by lightning and burnt to the ground in 110 AD.  You have to realize that these incidents would come across as very bad omens for Rome during this otherwise prosperous time. Lightening was controlled by Jupiter (Zeus) and if it struck the building it would likely signify he was unhappy with it or the Romans in general.

Trajan, emperor at the time, would have likely begun the structure and Hadrian would have finished it.  Hadrian was a great Emperor and very humble so he did not dedicate the structure to himself – something he only did one time. He instead dedicated it to the man who originally built it; Marcus Agrippa. We will get to that when we go over the porch.

Who built the Pantheon? Many believe the architect responsible is Apollodorus of Damascus but this is again speculation.  We do know that Hadrian commissioned renovations on the Pantheon which were completed between 125 AD and 128 AD.

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Biggest Concrete Dome in the World

Perfection

Once you walk inside your eyes will be drawn to the dome above you.  Many people stop in the doorway causing traffic jams and we can’t blame you.  That is the effect Appolodorus would have longed for.  I’ve written it in other blogs, but the architecture of Rome was heavily focused on showing the superiority of the Romans and the Pantheon was no different.

The dome is a perfect hemisphere and you would be able to fit a sphere inside the structure with a diameter of 145ft (44.4M) which would touch the ceiling, floor, and walls.  The building is perfect and thus its construction is a mystery.  Some believe a complex scaffolding was used to lay the concrete and others believe the entire building was filled with sand from Ostia. Today, all you can do is enjoy it.

The building is 145ft (44.4M) tall by 145ft (44.M) wide and built completely from stone, brick, and concrete.  The dome is made entirely out of concrete with 5 rows of 28 coffers that diminish in size as you get closer to the oculus. 

Open Hole & Records to This Day

The oculus is completely open. Rain and other elements do get inside the structure when doors are closed.  You’ll see the floor sloping down into the center and drains in place to allow water to leave the structure. There is a decorated bronze ring on the interior of the oculus and there would have likely been decorative bronze fixtures in all of the 140 coffers.

Remember that the Pantheon was built 2,000 years ago. Keep that in mind as I tell you that it held the record for the largest span of concrete until 1958! The building that finally beat it was the CNIT building in Paris.

Want another record? Well the Pantheon is also the largest unreinforced concrete dome ever built even to this day! If this doesn’t impress my friends then nothing will and now you know why the Pantheon is so famous.

Kings of Italy and An Artist Buried Inside

Kings of Italy

One of the reasons the Pantheon is so famous is due to the people buried inside. Vittorio Emmanuelle was a Sardinian King who successfully unified all of the sub-kingdoms of Italy to form one great nation between 1861 – 1871. He was from the Casa Savoia which was a great noble family established in 1003 AD. Their family still has successors today although their titles are not recognized.

Emmanuel’s army, led by the great Giuseppe Garibaldi, successfully unified the peninsula under the rule of one monarch.  Some sub-kingdoms joined peacefully and others by force.  The final stop was the battle of Castelfidardo which is when Garibaldi fought and was victorious over the Papal forces.  The catholic church controlling armies is extremely foreign to us today.

Victor Emmanuel II died in 1878 and was buried in the Pantheon.   His tomb reads Padre della Patria which translates to the Father of the Fatherland. The fact that he was allowed to be buried here is a mystery. Pope Pius IX refused to meet with Emmanuel after he overtook Rome and never acknowledged his reign.  Then, he allows him to be buried inside the Pantheon which is a Catholic Church?

Umberto I, the second and last King of Italy and also a Savoia, is buried in the same tomb.

Raphael the Painter

Raphael’s tomb sits in the back left-hand side of the structure. He is buried next to his fiancee Maria Bibbiena which was not by his design.  He was madly in love with Margherita Lute who was a baker’s daughter and the subject of many of his works of art including La Fornarina (Palazzo Barberini) which translates literally to the baker’s daughter.

Raphael, who lived from 1483 to 1520 and arguably died on his birthday, is situated under a statue of Mary holding baby Jesus to her left which was done by an artist named Lorenzetto.

His tomb reads ILLE HIC EST RAFFAEL, TIMUIT QUO SOSPITE VINCI, RERUM MAGNA PARENS ET MORIENTE MORI which was translated by Alexander Pope to read, “Living, great nature feared he might outvie Her works; and, dying, fears herself may die.”

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Looking for a bite to eat? Check out our annually updated list of the best places to eat near the Pantheon in Rome!

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It Has Been a Church for 1,400 years!

One of the most pertinent facts about Pantheon is its survival. In 609 A.D. the Pantheon was converted into a church in by Pope Boniface IV.  A rough history states that  Christians were complaining about being plagued by pagan ghosts that haunted the building so it was then converted to a church.

This is the principal reason that the building is still standing today and why the Pantheon is so famous. Many other Ancient Roman buildings were built to withstand time, but not the recycling of its material. Once it was a church, nobody was allowed to loot the building. It is still a church today and is called St. Mary and the Martyrs.

Most of the Original Decoration Was Recycled

The Pantheon has been famous over the centuries not always in a good way. The fact that it was turned into a church most definitely helped the Pantheon from being destroyed over the centuries. However, that doesn’t’ mean that it couldn’t be stripped of its most precious metals and marbles!

In the 17th century, Pope Urban VIII  (Barberini) ordered significant material to be taken from the Pantheon including bronze which adorned the ceiling of the portico. This is where the phrase, “What the barbarians did not do the Barberini did.”

This refers to the barbarians who sacked Rome in antiquity taking most of its wealth. The bronze was used for Bernini’s famous  Baldacchino in St. Peter’s Basilica.

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The Porch Isn’t The Right Size

The porch is significantly different from the inner drum.  It is literally the square peg and round hole dilemma. Many speculate why the building’s porch design does not match the width of the drum. If you look directly at the structure you can see the drum behind the porch which, for a lack of better words, makes the exterior look ugly. Some think this was due to a shortage of materials during construction or even a shipwreck that caused the loss of some columns from Egypt.

It is still a classical monumental entrance. Support columns are monolithic shafts of Egyptian granite that sit on a base of white Pentelic marble.  The exterior of the building would also have been completely clad with marble – the Romans would not have designed the structure with a brick exterior.

The triangular facade shows many marks that lead us to believe there must have been a frieze on the front.  Imagine a massive Eagle in a victorious wreath which was the symbol of Rome and Jupiter. You’ll see small holes that would have adjoined the frieze to the facade.

Notice there are 4 pink Aswan marble columns in the middle of the porch.  These columns were added in the 17th century after some damage and are not original to the building. The bronze doors, although ancient for us,  are not original to the building.  They were likely added in the 15th century when Rome was coming out of the darkness of the middle ages.