The Pantheon and Hadrian’s Temple in Rome

The Pantheon Temple

The Pantheon is not only one of the world’s most extraordinary architectural achievements but it was also a Pagan temple. The name Pantheon is Greek and means “all the Gods”. Over the years the Romans adopted many, many Gods. They had gods for almost everything including a Good Harvest, Wine, Lightening, Abundance, Health and even obscure things like keeping mice out of the cupboards. Therefore, to make things easier the Roman’s made one large temple where everybody could go and pray to all of the Gods at once – kind of like the Supermarket of Temples i.e. no need to travel all over the city visiting different temples , everything here under one roof at the Pantheon.

The Pantheon was originally constructed by Marcus Agrippa in 27BC to celebrate his and Rome’s victory over the rebel Marc Anthony and Cleopatra at Actium - The inscription on the top still reads “Marcus Agrippa, 3 times Consul, built this”. The temple that Marcus Agrippa built however, didn’t look like the one you see here today as the original faced completely other way i.e. the front was where the back was and vice versa. The reason for this is that the original Pantheon was badly damaged by fire in 80 AD and after a reconstruction destroyed again by fire in 110AD. It was rebuilt between 118 and 125 AD by the Emperor Hadrian who turned it 180 degrees to face the direction in which it faces today. Click Here to see a virtual tour of the Pantheon in Rome

 

Pantheon Oculus

The hole in the roof is called the Oculus and is 30 feet in diameter and is the building’s only window. The hole was left in purpose as ancient Romans believed that their prayers would get to the god’s quicker if there was a hole in the roof and that hole was uncovered. NB Romans could have covered the whole with glass as Romans were using glass as early as 40AD.The Pantheon never floods as the floor slops ever so slightly inwards towards the centre where there are a number of small holes for the water to drain away. The floor is made of marble and was restored in 1873 preserving the original design.

The Pantheon was set in a beautiful courtyard stretching to about 400 feet in length with a huge bathing complex added by Nero. This courtyard is now underground as the ground level in Rome has risen by about 15 feet since Roman Times. In fact the ground appears to slope down to the Pantheon whereas in the past there would have been several steps up to the entrance as temple’s were also raised off the ground (in order to be closer to the gods)

The columns supporting the Pantheon have a story all to themselves. Monolithic columns i.e. one piece they were hewn whole out of Mountains in Egypt, dragged thousands of kilometres overland and sent to Rome by Boat. There are 16 columns, 13 are the originals with 3 having been replaced due to weakness. They each 96 tonnes and would take 3 people with their hands clasped to span their circumference. The columns have Corinthian heads and Doric bases with the grey granite in the front and 4 red granite columns beside the entrance.

The facade of the Pantheon was once covered in beautiful bronze ornaments and works. Unfortunately, most of this was either looted or taken by the Popes for their own use and religious sculptures. For example much of the bronze that was on the Pantheon was used by Bernini for a project commissioned by the Barberini Pope. This gave rise to the popular saying "What the Barbarians didn’t do the Barberini Popes did".

The Pantheon Dome is 43.5 metres wide i.e. 1 metre wider than Michelangelo’s Dome at St Peters. Michelangelo deliberately left St. Peters smaller than the Pantheon as he was so in awe of the engineering involved that he decided to leave it the World’s largest dome. The distance from the floor to the dome is exactly the same as the diameter - a perfect hemisphere, the dome could be tipped it upside down it would fit perfectly inside the building.

To create the Dome they had to first build wooden scaffolding the exact shape and size of the Dome they wanted. They then attached inverted moulds, using the technique called coffered ceilings. Then they start pouring cement starting with a heavy strong mixture, a travertine mix at the bottom level and as they work up the structure they mix it with a lighter mix such as tufa stone. At the very top it’s mixed with a pumice stone which is so light it can actually float in water. The walls are 19 inches thick at the base and 6 inches at the opening which is 9 metres wide.

The Pantheon is the only building from Roman times to remain completely intact. This is because it never suffered from Earthquake damage due to its’ shifting foundations... it is built on a bed of sand.

The Pantheon is also a Tomb

There are 2 tombs of note inside the temple – King Vittorio Emmanuele II who was the first king of a re-united Italy in 1870. Plus his son King Umberto and his wife Queen Margherita are also buried here. Queen Margherita gave her name to the most popular of Italian pizza’s the Margherita which is simply tomatoe (red), mozzarella cheese (white) and basil leaves (green) which are the colours of the Italian flag.

Raphael or Raffaello in Italian is buried inside the Pantheon. He died on Good Friday 1520 and was only 37 years old. Raphael was working on a famous piece of work called the Transfiguration when he died. He was so obsessed with this painting that when he died it was carried in front of his funeral procession. NB recent developments in science and particularly in DNA have led to Raffaello’s exhumation and there is talk of looking for his descendant by taking samples from cross sections of the Italian population particularly in tuscany.

The Pantheon in Rome is to be found in the Piazza della Rotunda, a fountain with an obelisk as it’s centre piece dominate the square. The fountain was designed by Giacomo della Porta. It was he along with Domenico Fontana eventually completed the dome at St Peters after the death of Michelangelo. The Obelisk is belonged to Ramses the Great and is one of 13 Egyptian obelisks to be found in Rome (in Egypt there are only 5 left)

Hadrian’s Temple

The temple was built by Antoninus Pius in 145AD in honour of the Emperor Hadrian who after he died was deified and made a god. Near the Temple is a model of what the temple, including Hadrian’s Forum would have looked like all those years ago.

Hadrian’s Temple appears to be covered in holes, these holes are where the metal bars supporting the marble facade used to be. All of Rome’s major monuments were covered in Marble as where most of the citie’s they conquered... hence the phrase coined by Emperor Augustus “I found a City of Brick and left it a City of Marble”