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In the walls at the back of the Pantheon’s portico are two huge niches, perhaps intended for statues of Augustus Caesar and Agrippa. After being unloaded near the Mausoleum of Augustus, the site of the Pantheon was still about 700 metres away. Each was 11.9 metres (39 ft) tall, 1.5 metres (4 ft 11 in) in diameter, and 60 tonnes (59 long tons; 66 short tons) in weight. The grey granite columns used in the Pantheon’s pronaos were quarried in Egypt at Mons Claudianus in the eastern mountains, and the pink granite columns from Aswan along the Nile. Rabun Taylor has noted that, even if the taller columns were delivered, basic construction constraints may have prevented their use. The builders then had to make some awkward adjustments to fit the shorter columns and pediments.

Far from Rome’s center, soldiers gathered in underground temples for mysterious rituals. From Egypt to Greece, explore fascinating documentaries about the ancient khelovipbangladesh.com world. Today, the Pantheon is a major tourist destination for visitors from around the world, while continuing to function as a church.

Dramatized Audio Tour + Paper Guide of the Pantheon

Godfrey and Hemsoll point out that ancient authors never refer to Hadrian’s Pantheon with the word aedes, as they do with other temples, and the Severan inscription carved on the architrave uses simply “Pantheum”, not “Aedes Panthei” (temple of all the gods). Cassius Dio, a Roman senator who wrote in Greek, speculated that the name of the Pantheon comes either from the statues of many gods placed around this building, or from the resemblance of the dome to the heavens. Ziegler tried to collect evidence of pantheons, but his list consists of simple dedications “to all the gods” or “to the Twelve Gods”, which are not necessarily true pantheons in the sense of a temple housing a cult that literally worships all the gods.

At the very top, where the dome would be at its weakest and vulnerable to collapse, the oculus lightens the load. The large bronze doors to the cella, measuring 4.45 metres (14.6 ft) wide by 7.53 metres (24.7 ft) high, are the oldest in Rome. It has also been argued that the scale of the portico was related to the urban design of the space in front of the temple. On the intermediate block between the portico and the rotunda, the remains of a second pediment suggests that the existing portico is much shorter than originally intended. The floor level of the portico originally rose seven steps (1.30 metres) above the paving of the original forecourt.

The history of the Panthéon

Rectangular coffers, or indentations, were cut in the ceiling, probably under Severus, and decorated with bronze rosettes and molding. The drum itself is strengthened by huge brick arches and piers set above one another inside the walls, which are 20 feet (6 metres) thick. In addition, the uppermost third of the drum of the walls, seen from the outside, coincides with the lower part of the dome, seen from the inside, and helps contain the thrust with internal brick arches. There is no external evidence of brick arch support inside the dome, except in the lowest part, and the exact method of construction has never been determined. Focus on building exceptional websites with instant access to Dev-Test-Live, pre-configured environments, and automated workflows that free you from outdated sysadmin tasks. The 1824 Henriette Wegner Pavilion in Oslo’s famous Frogner Park features a painted miniature copy of the Pantheon dome.

• The checkerboard floor pattern contrasts with the concentric circles of square coffers in the dome.
• Cassius Dio, a Graeco-Roman senator, consul and author of a comprehensive History of Rome, writing approximately 75 years after the Pantheon’s reconstruction, mistakenly attributed the domed building to Agrippa rather than Hadrian.
• The building is round in plan, except for the portico with large granite Corinthian columns (eight in the first rank and two groups of four behind) under a pediment.
• In contrast to the plain appearance of the outside, the interior of the building is lined with coloured marble, and the walls are marked by seven deep recesses, screened by pairs of columns whose modest size gives scale to the immensity of the rotunda.
• The whole building stands on a 1.3 metres high base which originally extended a further 7 metres in front of the colonnade.

The thickness of the dome varies from 6.4 metres (21 ft) at the base of the dome to 1.2 metres (3.9 ft) around the oculus. A portico aligned with the second pediment would fit columns with shafts 50 Roman feet (14.8 metres) tall and capitals 10 Roman feet tall (3 metres), whereas the existing portico has shafts 40 Roman feet (11.9 metres) tall and capitals eight Roman feet (2.4 metres) tall. The wall and attached buildings blocked off access along the Via della Minerva, and the portico became partially blocked and congested with vendor stalls.

The floor was polished and sections of crumbling marble replaced using modern pavonazzetto and Giallo di Siena. Some of the 64 original marble capitals removed from the attic made their way into private collections and ended up at the British Museum. A widespread belief at the time, based on aesthetic objections, viewed the design in place as not ancient but some later alteration. The architect Paolo Posi was hired to “restore” the broad frieze below the dome with its windows, known as the attic, to conform with Neoclassical design standards, though the result bore little resemblance to the original. A mobile scaffolding system was devised to access the dome coffers, which were whitewashed with several layers of lime. In 1753, the condition of the interior prompted restoration work on the dome and adjacent features.