The Garden of Eaden: ROME: The Pantheon

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When you think of Rome, images of the Colosseum, and the Vatican come to mind. As old as these buildings may be, the oldest surviving Roman building that is still in use today is the Pantheon. Named from the Greek meaning 'to every god', it was commissioned by Marcus Agrippa as a temple to all the gods of Ancient Rome, and rebuilt by Emperor Hadrian in about 126 AD.

At the top of the dome is a large opening, known as the oculus, which was the only source of light.

The front portico has three rows of 8 columns, each one with a diameter of 1.5m. Amazingly, each of these monolithic columns is cut from a single piece of marble.

The history of the Pantheon

The construction of the Pantheon was part of a program of construction that was undertaken by Augustus Caesar and his supporters. Together, they built more than twenty structures on the Campus Martius, including the Baths of Agrippa and the Saepta Julia.

It had long been thought that the current building was built by Agrippa, with later alterations undertaken, and this was in part because of the inscription on the front of the temple.

The inscription across the front of the Pantheon says: M·AGRIPPA·L·F·COS·TERTIVM·FECIT or in full,

"M[arcus] Agrippa L[ucii] f[ilius] co[n] s[ul] tertium fecit,"

meaning "Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius, made this building when consul for the third time."

However, archaeological excavations have shown that the Pantheon of Agrippa had been completely destroyed except for the facade, and Emperor Hadrian was responsible for rebuilding the Pantheon on the site of Agrippa's original temple.

The Interior

Originally a temple for all pagan gods, the temple was converted into a church in 609.

The Pantheon now contains the tombs of the famous artist Raphael and of several Italian Kings.

Its ecclasiastic interior design contrast with the temple's structural design, but the marble floor - which features a design consisting of a series of geometric patterns - is still the ancient Roman original.

The Rotunda

The rotunda is perhaps the most striking element of the pantheons architecture. In fact it was the largest dome in the world until 1436 when the Florence Cathedral was constructed.

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.

The stresses in the dome were found to be substantially reduced by the use of successively less dense aggregate stones, such as small pots or pieces of pumice, in higher layers of the dome.

Hidden chambers engineered within the rotunda form a sophisticated honeycomb structure. This reduced the weight of the roof, as did the elimination of the apex by means of the oculus. The top of the rotunda wall features a series of brick relieving arches, visible on the outside and built into the mass of the brickwork. The Pantheon is full of such devices – for example, there are relieving arches over the recesses inside – but all these arches were hidden by marble facing on the interior and possibly by stone revetment or stucco on the exterior.