Pantheon

The Pantheon was incredible, but not as photogenic as many of the other attractions. The history is very interesting - it was built in 100 something BC (multiple times because it burned down twice in the first few years) as a Roman temple, and was then later converted into a church around 600 AD. Because it was converted to a church it is one of the only ancient Roman structures that wasn’t destroyed. The dome is one singular piece of concrete, it is insane to think they were able to build that so long ago and get it up there (almost 150 feet in diameter). It also contains tombs of the first two (of four) Italian kings from the 1800s, as well as the painter Raphael. I learned that Raphael was basically the first person who advocated to start preserving ancient Roman monuments instead of destroying them, which was heavily influential and changed the way that Romans viewed and appreciated their heritage. Pretty incredible. Fun fact, he was both born and died on Juliana’s birthday.
The hole in the ceiling allows the sun in and at mid day it lines up with the main doorway. They even had a drainage system in the floor which still works. The floor is the original floor from when it was built. It is the best preserved (basically the only preserved) ancient Roman structure. I had a great tour guide who was really passionate about the history and had a lot of great info!En savoir plus