Pantheon

Hotel Pantheon Rome

Michelangelo was the first who felt that the Pantheon was the work of angels, not of men. And indeed this magnificent building is maybe the best preserved Roman monument with the biggest brick dome in the history of architecture, besides being the most copied/imitated among all ancient works and at the same time the forerunner of all modern places of worship. According to the legend the Pantheon was build by Augusto's son-in-law to celebrate a victory against the Persians, exactly where Romulus (founder of Rome) after his death was taken to the skies by an eagle. Notwithstanding various subsequent heavy restructurings, it was the eclectic genius of Emperor Hadrian who rebuilt the Pantheon in a circular shape in AD 125 with the magnificent outer colonnade of Greek inspiration and a dome resting on a cylinder of masonry walls built using stepped rings of solid concrete with less and less density the higher it goes. Early in the VII century it became a Christian church dedicated to "Santa Maria ai Martiri" by Pope Boniface IV. Used as a tomb since Renaissance, in the Pantheon are buried the painters Raphael and Annibale Carracci, the composer Corelli and two kings of Italy: Vittorio Emanuele II and Umberto I with his wife Queen Margherita. The Pantheon is still a church where masses (and weddings) are celebrated.

Pantheon
by fabien beckerich

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