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Monument of ancient culture - Pantheon in Rome (temple of all gods). Pantheon, "Temple of all Gods" in Rome

The Pantheon (temple of all gods) in Rome is the embodiment of the wealth and luxury of the Roman Empire, a historical monument of ancient culture. The Pantheon in Rome was built in the 2nd century AD.

Traveltipy / flickr.com Diana Robinson / flickr.com Luftphilia / flickr.com Thomas Shahan / flickr.com Moyan Brenn / flickr.com Darren Flinders / flickr.com Dennis Jarvis / flickr.com Kari Bluff / flickr.com Jun / flickr. com Stewart Butterfield / flickr.com Giulio Menna / flickr.com Moyan Brenn / flickr.com yeowatzup / flickr.com Fountain in front of the Pantheon in Rome (Diana Robinson / flickr.com) Diana Robinson / flickr.com cogito ergo imago / flickr.com Xiquinho Silva / flickr.com Bruce Harlick / flickr.com Darko / flickr.com

The temple of all gods is the embodiment of the wealth and luxury of the Roman Empire and just a wonderful monument of ancient culture. The Pantheon in Rome was built in the 2nd century AD. e. during the reign of Emperor Hadrian and still retains its mystery and grandeur.

For a long time, people here worshiped pagan deities and even made sacrifices to them, and in the 7th century the temple was consecrated as a Catholic one.

On the facade of the building one can see the inscription "M. Agrippa L. F. Cos. Tertium Fecit", which indicates that the construction was carried out by Mark Vipsanius Agrippa, who was elected consul three times. But we are talking about the former pantheon, founded before our era, which was later completed and significantly changed.

The front of the temple of all the gods is supported by massive granite columns 14 meters high, such can be seen in many architectural buildings of Ancient Rome.

The Pantheon, as it were, consists of two buildings - the entrance and the rotunda itself - the main part of a cylindrical shape with a huge dome. Its diameter is 43 meters, and despite such dimensions - not a single window, only a round hole in the dome - the oculus or eye of the pantheon.

Dome of the Pantheon, Rome (Jun / flickr.com)

This is explained by the fact that one entrance for the sun's rays at that time symbolized the single beginning of all the gods, they say that at different times of the year a stream of light from the eye fell either on one stone idol standing in a recess along the wall, or on another, unfortunately, up to Our time statues have not been preserved. The height of the building is 42 meters, which creates an atmosphere of grandeur inside.

The dome has a perfect spherical shape and is truly a marvel of architecture. 140 caissons decorate it and at the same time support the structure, significantly reducing the weight of the vault.

From the base of the temple to the oculus, the thickness of the wall decreases, thereby ensuring the stability and safety of the building. Scientists have calculated that the weight of the dome is approximately five tons, even before the 19th century it was considered the largest in the world.

Paintings and sculptures of the 18th century remind us that the temple has long ceased to be a pantheon in its true meaning, that is, a place for worshiping pagan gods. This is Mary with Jesus in her arms, Jesus next to an unidentified saint, a fresco of the Madonna with a belt and St. Nicholas and others.

Fontana in front of the Pantheon in Rome (Diana Robinson / flickr.com)

In front of the pantheon itself there is an equally ancient fountain. During the history of its existence, it has been restored several times. At first, it was a figured pool, and water spouted from the bowl in the middle.

Then there were steps, a model of rocks and dolphins surrounding grotesque masks, the back of which was the muzzles of dragons - a special heraldic symbol of Pope Gregory XIII.

In 1711, at the request of Pope Clement XI, the fountain was improved, an ancient Egyptian obelisk, once owned by Ramses II, was installed in the middle and decorated with the symbols of the papal family - an eight-pointed star with three hills (papal triara) and crossed keys above it.

At the end of the 19th century, the original marble sculpture was dismantled and sent to the Museum of Rome. Currently, in front of the pantheon there is only a copy made by the designer Luigi Amici.

Roman Pantheon - the tomb of great people

Many artists and scientists have visited the temple in the history of its existence, and they all admired the unsurpassed power and luxury.

Michelangelo called the temple of all the gods the creation of angels, and Raphael Santi dreamed of being buried here, in his opinion, in a place that connects people and gods. And so it happened, after the death of the artist, his body was laid to rest in the pantheon, and since then it has become the burial place of great people.

In the Middle Ages, the temple of all the gods began to be used as a Christian church, the same fate was destined for many other pagan shrines, if they were not demolished at all.

Interior of the Pantheon in Rome (Darren Flinders / flickr.com)

The architect Bernini in the 16th century decided to build two small bell towers on top of the rotunda. But not all pagan symbols could be combined with Christianity.

The extension looked absolutely ridiculous. Called by the people "Bernini's donkey ears", they stood like that for two centuries, as a result they were nevertheless demolished.

The dome was originally covered in gilded bronze, but this was melted down to make a ciborium for St. Peter's.

On May 13, 609, the Pantheon was consecrated and transformed into the Church of St. Mary and the Martyrs. This date began to be celebrated as All Saints Day. This feast was later rescheduled when Pope Gregory III consecrated a chapel in St. Peter's Basilica on 1 November.

How and when to get to the Pantheon?

The Pantheon is located in Piazza della Rotonda, the nearest metro station is Barberini. Open to visitors from 9:00 to 18:00 on Sunday, and on all other days from 8:30 to 19:30. The visit is free.

The Pantheon is the "temple of all the gods", the most beautiful of the classical monuments of ancient Roman civilization. Erected as a pagan chapel, five centuries later it became a Christian shrine.

The building of the Pantheon, which can now be found in Rome, was built in the II century, when Emperor Hadrian was in power. This building served as a copy of the temple that once stood here, destroyed by strong fires, first in the year 80 and later in the II century. Hadrian restored the temple of all the gods and did not want to take credit for its creator. The founder of the original Pantheon was Marcus Agrippa. In 25 BC. e. he erected a majestic temple building. The Latin inscription on the entrance reads: "Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius, elected consul for the third time, built this." A smaller inscription tells about the restoration of 202, carried out under Septimius Severus and Caracalla.

Rites and ceremonies were performed in the Pantheon in honor of the most revered Roman gods - Jupiter, Venus, Mars, Neptune, Pluto, Mercury and Saturn. In ancient times, in the center of the building, under the hole in the dome, there was an altar on which animals were burned, sacrificed to the almighty gods.

The form of the monumental temple goes back to the tradition of the Italic buildings of sanctuaries and huts. It is a massive round structure with a dome that looks almost flat from the outside, but from the inside its height is impressive, it is half the volume of the temple itself. During construction, it was thought that the Pantheon should impress primarily with its interior decoration, so it was distinguished by greater grandeur than the exterior. Nevertheless, this does not mean that the builders paid insufficient attention to the external decoration of the temple.

The triangle of the pediment of the solemn portico at the entrance is supported by 16 gigantic columns. Their round bases and Corinthian capitals are made of Greek marble, and the columns themselves are made of red Egyptian granite monoliths. The dome of the pantheon is covered with gilded bronze plates. But an interesting fact is that there is not a single window in the pantheon. It is light here only during the day, when light penetrates inside through a round hole in the dome. It is very large, with a diameter of 9 meters, so it is more than enough for both lighting and smoke when parishioners performed rituals with sacrifices.

The sun's rays did not spread completely throughout the room, but descending, they created a kind of light column. It seems that here you can touch the light, this pillar is so bright. The second version of the construction of the hole in the roof vault had a symbolic meaning, supposedly it was a kind of window to heaven. During the celebrations, people prayed and looked through the hole into the sky, where, according to ancient beliefs, the gods were, and the ceiling did not interfere with them at all.

There are legends about the appearance of this hole in the dome. One of them tells that during the consecration of the temple, many demons who lived there rushed about in fear, looking for a way out. They hit the walls and ceiling and couldn't escape. The strongest demon tried to break the roof and punched a hole in the center with its horns.

Film tour of the Pantheon in Rome

Name: Panthevm (lat.), Πάνθειον Pantheion (other Greek), Pantheon (en)

Location: Rome, Italy)

Creation: 2 in. AD (~126 AD)

Architect(s): Apollodorus of Damascus

Customer / Founder: Emperor Hadrian







During the period of the late Roman Empire, the technique of architecture was improved and new building structures were developed. Based on the Greek order system, the Romans were able to find their own expressive forms. The constructive advantages of the arch, known to the Etruscan builders, were used by the Romans in the construction of vaults and domes. New types of buildings were erected, their spatial solution became more complicated, a typical system of urban planning was formed. Practical Romans came up with many engineering devices for the extraction and production of building materials. In the construction of the Pantheon - the "temple of all the gods" - one of the most impressive buildings that have survived from that era, a domed ceiling and frame structures made of brick and concrete were used. The Pantheon was perfectly preserved also because in the 7th century the pagan temple was transferred to the Christian church. The dome of the Pantheon is striking - this example of ancient engineering art remained unsurpassed in size until the 19th century.

temple architecture

  1. spherical volume. The height of the dome from the floor is equal to its diameter, that is, the interior of the temple can accommodate a full sphere - an ideal shape symbolizing the image of the Universe. The architectural appearance of the Pantheon embodied the ideas of the Romans about the universe. The dome of the temple personifies the vault of heaven, illuminated by the main celestial body - the Sun.
  2. Caisson vault. In the caissons - square recesses covering the inner surface of the dome - the lower ledges are underlined. This technique creates the illusion of the sky, solemnly and easily rising above the viewer's head.
  3. Vault section. The building is a cylinder covered with a hemispherical dome. At the base, the shell of the dome is much thicker than at the top.
  4. Concrete. During the construction of the dome, wooden formwork was used. After the concrete had hardened, the formwork was removed. The Romans were the first to use concrete in construction. The new material was used to build large monolithic structures capable of covering wide spans - this is how domes and vaults appeared in Roman architecture. The use of concrete made construction cheaper and faster. Master carpenters made wooden forms (formwork) in the form of boxes, and laborers brought and poured concrete into them. Roman concrete is a mixture of lime and sand of volcanic origin (pozzolana). Concrete with the addition of various materials (aggregates) was applied in layers between two walls of brickwork. Roman concrete structures did not yet have metal reinforcement, so they almost did not reduce the expansion created by gravity. In addition, concrete with aggregates became less pliable and difficult to shape into complex shapes.
  5. hidden arches. The arches, made of bricks and hidden in the thickness of the walls, act as internal supports that reduce the pressure of the dome on the walls. In the construction of walls, vaults and domes, as a rule, brickwork was used. Sometimes the surface of a brick wall was covered with a layer of plaster. If the building needed to be given a particularly elegant look, the walls were lined with intricate patterns of stone and marble slabs. The plates were fastened with bronze brackets and bolts.
  6. Portico. The wide stone pediment of the portico rests on 8 columns. The bases and Corinthian capitals of the monolithic columns are made of white marble, while the stems are made of Egyptian granite. The portico of the Pantheon was part of another, earlier temple. This circumstance caused controversy in determining the time of construction of the temple. However, the brands of suppliers preserved on the brickwork prove that the construction of the Pantheon was carried out in the early years of the reign of Emperor Hadrian (117-38).
  7. Floor of the Pantheon. The floor of the Pantheon is paved with marble, porphyry and granite slabs. The pattern formed by squares and circles arranged in a checkerboard pattern echoes the pattern of caissons.
  8. Niches. The niches carved in the wall are dedicated to the five planets that the Romans knew about, as well as the luminaries - the Sun and the Moon.
  9. Domes over niches. Auxiliary domes, placed above the niches, reduce the pressure of the main dome, since the vertical load is transferred directly to the foundation, bypassing the walls.
  10. Round window in the dome. The inner space of the temple is spectacularly illuminated through a round hole crowning the vault with a diameter of 8 meters. It lightened the weight of the vault in the upper part and eliminated the need to solve the technically difficult task of placing windows around the perimeter of the dome. The light pouring from above gives the impression of grandeur and solemnity.
  11. Podium. The Pantheon was erected on a podium with 8 steps leading up to it. Gradually, the level of the ground around the building rose, and now it is in a shallow depression.

    Sources:

  • Smolina N.I. "Traditions of symmetry in architecture" - M.: Stroyizdat, 1990
  • Ikonnikov A.V., Stepanov G.P. Fundamentals of architectural composition. Art, M. 1971
  • Ya. Stankova, I. Pekhar “Thousand-year development of architecture”, Moscow, Stroyizdat, 1984
  • Viollet Le Duc "Conversations on Architecture". Volume one. Publishing House of the All-Union Academy of Architecture. Moscow. 1937
  • Mikhailovsky I.B. "The Theory of Classical Architectural Forms". Reprint edition. - M.: "Architecture-S", 2006. - 288 p., ill.
  • P.P. Gnedich. “The General History of Art. Painting. Sculpture. Architecture". Modern version. Moscow “Eksmo”, 2009
  • Edmund Thomas "Monumentality and the Roman Empire. Architecture in the Antonine Age"

The Pantheon is the most mysterious of all the buildings of Ancient Rome. No one really knows when and mainly how it was built. Any modern builder will tell you that this cannot be, because it can never be. And the Pantheon is standing. It is believed that its construction was completed by 120 AD.

Such conclusions about the age of the Pantheon are made by official science on the basis of reading the surviving chronicles. But in historical sources there is no exact indication of the date in the summer calculus accepted today. Those. some logical chains of reasoning (correct or incorrect) were built, and on their basis the completion of the construction of the Temple of all the gods was attributed to 120 AD and the reign of Emperor Hadrian.

The Pantheon was once built as the Temple of All Gods, but has long since become the Church of St. Mary and the Martyrs. Entry to active churches is free, enjoy.



Audio guides in Russian are available

Strange lack of history of perestroika

Wikipedia (I read an article in English, much less is written in Russian) strangely says almost nothing about the restructuring and repairs of the Pantheon, and after all, any building needs to be repaired, nothing lasts forever. Does the Pantheon take almost forever? Remember the landowners' estates in Russia, built in a similar way to the Pantheon from brick and mortar. What state are they in? But they have been abandoned for only some miserable 100 years.

The solid age of the Pantheon conflicts with the brick walls and concrete dome of the building. Brick and concrete have a limited shelf life, modern building science claims that the life of concrete is no more than 600 years. Think of the Venetian campanile, because it collapsed in 1902 in the classic way - it fell apart into separate bricks. Those. the bonds between the bricks loosened to such an extent that the entire structure literally turned into a pile of construction debris in just a few moments.

And the Pantheon is almost 1000 years older than the Campanile, according to the official historical version.



The Pantheon stands in a flood zone, any builder will say that it is very harmful for the building

I found the oldest image of the Pantheon from the 17th century. The painting was painted by the Dutch Golden Age painter Willem van Nieulandt II, who was born and lived permanently in Antwerp. Even then it looked abandoned, but in order to overgrow with bushes, the building does not need millennia, 10-15 years of lack of care will be enough.



View of the Pantheon, Willem van Nieulandt II (years of life 1584-1635)

The greatest illustration of the changes in the construction of the Pantheon is the following painting by Piranesi. In the 16th century, the architect Bernini, at the direction of the next Pope, built two strange bell towers at the top, popularly nicknamed "Bernini's donkey ears", in order to give the ancient temple a greater resemblance to a church. Two centuries later, they were removed.

Pay attention to how the surroundings have changed in the 150 years since the previous picture was written. Houses approached almost close to the temple. And they remain in the same proximity to this day.



View of Rome, Piranesi, 1761, kept in the Museum of San Francisco

Traces of the reconstruction of the Pantheon, however, are striking, but for some reason nothing is reported about them. Pay attention above the portico, traces of the previous portico are clearly visible. Read the history of any ancient structure other than the Roman one and you will see a long line of rebuilds and repairs. And the history of the ancient Pantheon is divided into three segments:

  1. The Pantheon of the beginning of the first millennium, with fires, destruction and restoration by the year 120. Oblivion for almost 400 years.
  2. Then follows a brief episode with the closing of a pagan temple and the opening of a Christian one in the same building in 609. Oblivion for about 900 years.
  3. Further history continues already in the XVI century.

Total failure of 900 years. There is clearly something wrong here. 900 years for a brick building is almost an eternity. Nowhere is it reported that the Pantheon was subjected to a thorough restructuring. It is believed that this is the best preserved building of Ancient Rome, even the marble decoration of the interior is mostly original.

These intricate column capitals are also original.



Above the main altar

Mysterious Dome

The main mystery of the Temple of All Gods is its dome. Concrete, not reinforced dome, which is about 2000 years old??? The researchers report that the lower tiers of the dome are made of harder concrete than the upper ones. And pumice stone was mixed into the concrete of the upper tiers to facilitate the construction. Until now, the dome of the Pantheon remains the largest non-reinforced dome in the world.

The thickness of the dome around the oculus is 1.2 meters, and when viewed from below, you can’t tell.



Caisson dome and oculus

It is curious that when we were told about the unique dome of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, built by Brunelleschi in 1436, i.e. 1316 years later than the Pantheon. They told about the problems that the architect faced. They were afraid that the huge and very heavy dome would crush the walls of the cathedral.

Against the backdrop of the dome of the Pantheon, Brunelleschi's genius fades, had he never seen the Temple of All the Gods in Rome and could not have tried to do something like that? But it is obvious that he did not see it, although his biography says that he went to study the ancient ruins of Rome, but it is not specifically said that he studied the dome of the Pantheon. The dome of Santa Maria del Fiore is double in order to distribute the load, i.e. by design, it is completely different.

Legends of the Pantheon

To begin with, I note that the Romans themselves recognize their skill in composing and promoting legends to life. After all, having heard a lot of beautiful stories, tourists will rush to Rome, one of the main sources of income for Italians. Therefore, Roman legends should be treated accordingly. However, the following stories are true.

Roman legends say that the Pantheon was built on the site from which Romulus, the founder of Rome, ascended to heaven. And various Temples of all the gods have stood on this spot since the founding of Rome. And that is not all.

They also say that in order to make a dome, the entire building was covered with earth mixed with coins. It was a kind of formwork and scaffolding in one bottle. And after the completion of construction, they allowed the people to take the land from the premises along with the coins. It is said that the walls were freed from the ground within a day.

These legends say that how the formwork for pouring the dome was made is not known.

Amazing harmony of forms

The interior of the Pantheon has the shape of a cylinder, the height of which is equal to the radius of the sphere of the dome, and is 43.3 meters. There are no windows inside at all, except for a mysterious hole in the center of the dome, also known as the Oculus!



Drawing to illustrate the harmony of forms

The oculus is a very peculiar architectural element; nowhere else have I seen such a window in the ceiling. Naturally, light and rain enter the room through it. The floor is made in such a way that rainwater merges into a special hole. Obviously, during the initial construction, a significant role was assigned to a ray of light penetrating inside through the eye.

In the Niches, located around the temple, there were 7 statues of Roman gods, however, correlated with the 7 planets of antiquity (Sun, Moon, Venus, Saturn, Jupiter, Mercury and Mars.). And a beam of light during the day bypassed only half the circle and illuminated the statues of the daytime gods in turn. We can say that the Pantheon was an ancient observatory and a temple at the same time.

The light effect can be seen on April 21, when the midday sun falls flat on the metal grill above the doorway. The Romans celebrated on April 21 the day of the founding of the city. On this day, the emperor himself stood at the entrance to the Pantheon, surrounded by light coming from within. This light put the emperor on the same level with the gods, the inhabitants of the Pantheon.

Burials in the Pantheon

Burials in the Pantheon also began to be made already in the 16th century, with the exception of a strange episode from the time of the conversion of the temple from pagan to Christian. Pope Boniface IV is said to have ordered 28 cartloads of the bones of saints from the Roman catacombs to be transported to the Pantheon in 609.

Currently, the Pantheon houses the graves of Raphael Santi (life 1483-1520), architect Baldassare Peruzzi (life 1481-1536), painter Annibale Carracci (life 1560-1609), composer Arcangelo Corelli (life 1653-1713), the king who united Italy - Victor Emmanuel II (years of life 1820-1861), King Umberto I (years of life 1844-1900). They began to bury the great people of Italy in the Pantheon only starting from the 16th century, and in the 18th century the French built their own Pantheon in Paris and also began to bury the great people of France in it.



Burial of Raphael Santi

In architecture, many imitations of the Roman Pantheon are known, but all of them were built no earlier than the 16th century.

Strange circles of red porphyry in the floors

The Temple of All Gods retains its original marble floor, made up of a series of geometric patterns, dating back to ancient Roman times. However, we saw a large circle on the red porphyry floor in St. Peter's Basilica, on which Charlemagne knelt when on Christmas Day 800 he was crowned imperial by Pope Leo III. Then another 21 emperors knelt, receiving the crown of the Holy Roman Empire from the hands of the pope.

The marble floors of the Pantheon have not been worn a bit in 2000 years, I think many of you have seen heavily worn marble floors and stairs in much younger buildings in your life. Or are the floors not original or in Rome marble of exceptional hardness?

Porphyry circle in the floor of the Pantheon

There is a similar circle of red porphyry in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin (this is where the Mouth of Truth is located). The basilica is believed to have been built in the 6th century. Even the circle in the basilica looks older than the circle in the ancient Pantheon.



Floors in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin

While looking for something about these porphyry circles in the floor, I came across information that in Hagia Sophia, which is located in Istanbul, there is the same circle. It turns out that Christian churches have inherited the tradition of making such porphyry circles in their floors from pagan temples? After all, the Pantheon was originally built as a pagan temple.



Floor in St. Peter's Basilica

In St. Peter's Cathedral, emperors were crowned standing on the circle, in Hagia Sophia the imperial throne stood on this place, but then what did this circle mean in the modest basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin? Does anyone know the answer to this question?

Mysterious pediment

Only in the 17th century, at the behest of Pope Urban VIII, some bronze figures that had been standing there since the time of the Roman emperors were removed from the pediment of the Pantheon. It is assumed that it was an imperial eagle with a ribbon. Urban VIII sent antique bronzes to be melted down for cannons for the Castel Sant'Angelo.

The columns support a triangular pediment with the inscription "M. AGRIPPA L F COS TERTIUM FECIT", which in translation sounds like: "Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius, elected consul for the third time, erected this." It is the only fragment left of the original temple built by Agrippa and is believed to have been left by Hadrian in memory of his predecessor when he was rebuilding the Pantheon after a fire.

By the way, the bronze letters of the inscription were cast anew already in the 19th century, following the traces left on the pediment. Restoring a drawing or inscriptions from traces (holes in the wall) left after their loss looks rather doubtful. There are a lot of holes in the pediment.

The strange columns of the portico

The 16 massive Corinthian columns supporting the portico weigh 60 tons each. They are 11.8 m high, 1.5 m in diameter and came to Rome from Egypt. These columns were dragged over 100 km from the quarry to the Nile River on wooden sleds. They were bargeed down the Nile River when the water levels were high during the spring floods and then loaded onto other ships to cross the Mediterranean towards the Roman port of Ostia. There they were once again loaded back onto barges and sent up the Tiber River.

Base of the Pantheon

There is such a ZigZag blogger in St. Petersburg. He develops the theory that our St. Isaac's Cathedral was built by "aliens", and not, based on the facts that the columns of Isaac are made of monolithic granite and weigh 114 tons each. It was impossible to cut down and transport and process these giants in the 19th century due to the lack of modern technology. What then can be said about the granite columns of the Pantheon? After all, it is assumed that they were made and installed much earlier.

The columns of the Pantheon, in comparison with the columns of Isaac, are much more roughly processed and damaged in places, damage was noted on the Piranesi engraving from 1761. Isaac's columns are almost perfectly polished, they only have chips caused during the Second World War, there are also patches made during construction.

Another strange fact

In 609, the Pantheon became the first pagan temple to be converted into a church, and so it was saved from destruction during the Middle Ages. Here I want to ask a question: “The first of what set of temples? Who in those distant times kept such statistics and how did it survive to this day? Today it is the Church of St. Mary and the Martyrs.

About the fountain and the Egyptian obelisk in front of the Pantheon

There is a beautiful fountain in the square in front of the Pantheon. It was designed by the famous architect Giacomo della Porta in 1575 and made of marble by Leonardo Sormani. In 1711, Pope Clement XI ordered the architect Filippo Barignoni to develop a new design for the fountain, which would include another pool made of stone and an obelisk of Ramses II, located in the center on a plinth with four dolphins at the base.



The base of the fountain in the Place Rotunda

I would like to note the love of the Popes for granite Egyptian obelisks. In total, as many as 13 such obelisks have been installed in Rome, many of them have hieroglyphs. Almost all Roman obelisks tell similar stories. First, in the days of Ancient Rome, the obelisk was delivered by sea from Egypt, then it adorned the capital of the Empire for some time, then it was found during excavations carried out already in the 17th-18th centuries and installed on new pedestals. All obelisks were erected by order of the Popes.



Piazza Rotunda in Rome with an Egyptian obelisk

Those. the fathers of the Roman Catholic Church do not see anything strange in the installation of pagan obelisks in their capital. For example, I note that in St. Petersburg in the Sosnovka forest park, wooden idols were destroyed literally in the spring of 2015 for religious reasons, although most of the townspeople and I never saw any pagan overtones in the wooden sculptures installed in the forest park. That's how different we are.

Or maybe A.T.'s new chronologists are right. Fomenko and G.V. Nosovsky? And earlier Egypt was also a Christian country, of course with its own national flavor, and the Popes, on this basis, decorated Rome with obelisks.

It seems to me that, nevertheless, errors crept in in determining the age of the Pantheon, perhaps messages about the restructuring of the dome or the entire building were lost.

It is curious that after the restoration and close study of the famous sculpture of the Capitoline Wolf, its real, and not annalistic, age was established. It turns out that the sculpture was made in the XII century, and not in 500 BC, as previously reported. It happens that the ancient chroniclers wrote about one building, and historians attributed these records to a completely different one. Maybe after additional research, the age of the Pantheon will be revised, and with it the entire Ancient Rome.

Although statements about the antiquity of a city or clan promise such privileges that it will not be easy to do something like this. The sign in the museum next to the Capitoline Wolf has not been changed.

Very close to the Pantheon is no less. Firstly, its name immediately surprises, combining the incompatible - the ancient Greek goddess and the Holy Virgin Mary, and secondly, this church was the support of the Inquisition, it was there that numerous convicts pronounced their renunciations of heresy, bonfires were laid out in its courtyard. The temple houses one of the works of Michelangelo ...

Whatever the goal is for a tourist who has chosen Rome as the main site to visit, he cannot bypass the Pantheon for several reasons:

  • it is an architectural masterpiece, the like of which is nowhere in the world;
  • this is the only ancient building that has escaped destruction and rebuilding, which means it truly conveys the atmosphere of antiquity;
  • it is easy to find on the tourist map;
  • it is completely free and works seven days a week;
  • it's impressive.

We will try to make sure you get there prepared, so we will tell you about the history of this temple, about what you should definitely see there, how best to get here, where to get the necessary information on the spot. Reviews of experienced tourists about the Pantheon, given at the end of the article, will help you make the final decision on visiting the temple of all the gods in Rome.

A bit of history

For the first time, the idea to create a temple dedicated to all the main gods of the Romans at once matured in the head of the consul Agrippa, a relative and ally of the first emperor Octavian Augustus. Agrippa created an amazing building not so much in appearance as in content. Unlike other temples dedicated to one, maximum two gods, the first Pantheon contained the altars of all the main deities of the Romans. Jupiter, Juno, Saturn, Venus, Mars - here one could make a sacrifice to each individually or all together. But even this revolutionary innovation is not the main one.

Only priests had the right to enter ancient temples, all rituals were carried out on the squares in front of the sanctuaries. Agrippa breaks this tradition. By ordering the entrance to the temple to be built in the form of a triumphal arch, he ensured that everyone entering here symbolically becomes a “triumphant”, which means “equal to the gods”. Now the townspeople could boldly enter where "uninitiated" did not allow them to do before. The priests were not delighted with such liberties, but they did not dare to argue with the influential builder.

The first temple of all the gods stood for a little over a century (27 BC - 80 AD), two fires that occurred with a break of thirty years practically destroyed the first Pantheon. On the site of a democratic temple there is a bathing pool. So it was before the coming to power of Emperor Hadrian, an educated and active man.

Emperor Hadrian liked to build temples and did not like Christians. He went down in history as the creator of the Pantheon in Rome and as a torturer who killed four Christian saints at once (Faith, Hope, Love and their mother Sophia). The second act has not been proven by historians, but the first is documented.

To the creation of the project and construction work was involved architectural genius Apollodorus of Damascus. The giant dome covering the cylindrical "body" of the temple became a miracle already during construction. The altars of the main gods arranged in a circle corresponded to the main idea of ​​the temple - public accessibility.

When Christianity was proclaimed the only religion in Rome, all the sculptures were knocked down from the pediment at the entrance to the Pantheon, the pagan statues were taken out of the temple and the heavy copper doors were closed. For more than two hundred years, the building was simply empty. Why was it not destroyed or turned into a Christian church right away? No answers have been found yet. It can be assumed that this place, which served pagan idols for a long time, was not considered suitable for a Christian temple.

The Pantheon received a new life at the beginning of the 7th century when it was presented by the Byzantine emperor to the Pope. The new name of the temple is the Church of St. Mary and the Martyrs.

From the 14th to the 16th century, the Pantheon served as a fortress, its walls could withstand the most powerful assault, and the time was turbulent. When peace reigned, the Pantheon received a third life. In a fit of general renewal and revelry of the Baroque, one famous architect built two ridiculous turrets over the entrance to the temple of all the gods. The Romans immediately called them "donkey ears" and soon removed them. So it still stands, devoid of external decorations, but grandiose and monumental.

What to watch?

Before entering the Pantheon:

  • Obelisk and fountain- the obelisk is a real Egyptian and ancient. For a long time it just lay in the bushes, knocked down by the barbarians. Installed during the Renaissance, and decorated with a fountain in the 16th century.

  • Colonnade and pediment above the entrance- the columns are antique, and on the pediment (a triangle under the roof) you can see the holes into which the fixtures for the sculptural group "Clash of the Titans" were inserted (destroyed as a pagan decoration). The inscription says that "this was built by Agrippa". A common thing for temples. Emperor Hadrian did not indicate himself, considering Agrippa's idea to be the main idea in the Pantheon.
  • - heavy, thick. They were installed at a time when the temple played the role of fortification.

  • Sculptures at the entrance- Agrippa and Adrian - founding fathers;

Inside the Pantheon:

  • Dome- you can look endlessly. There are no windows in the temple of all the gods, the light enters through a hole on the top of the head. There are several legends associated with this "eye": Christian - when the first mass was held in the Pantheon, pagan spirits or demons escaped from here through the top of the temple (not very hard to believe, but impresses many); folk - Copernicus finally inclined to the idea that the Earth revolves around the Sun, looking at the dome of the Pantheon.
  • Burials- here you can find the resting place of Raphael (the most popular place), as well as the graves of the first kings of a united Italy.

  • Sculptures in niches- some have been preserved since ancient times and were "adapted" to the needs of Christians.
  • Icon of the main altar- a list from the main miraculous icon of Poland (Chestnokhovskaya Mother of God). They say that miraculous healings and fulfillment of desires are not uncommon here.

At the entrance to the temple, you can take an audio guide in Russian by filling out the application form and leaving a document as a pledge (passport, credit card, etc.). The service itself costs 5 euros. Entrance and photo - free of charge.

Working hours: from 9 am to 7:30 pm. Sunday - until 6 pm. On holidays - only until one o'clock in the afternoon.

How to get there?

nearest - Barberini(A line). You have to walk 700 meters from it.

Bus stop "Argentina" there are routes 40, 64, 87, 492. You will have to walk 400 meters.

Tram number 8- not the most convenient transport, except perhaps on the road from the Vatican.

Having examined the Pantheon, it's time to go further, explore and inspect other historical sites, galleries, museums and fountains. Rome is literally full of sights that you want to see. To catch as much as possible, it is desirable to have a clear route in front of you. We will tell you how not to miss anything.