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The Pantheon
and the Piazza della Rotonda

Go to:

  • a general description below; ... or
  • a detailed description <HERE>; ... or
  • a more a description of the surrounding area. <HERE>

The Pantheon and the Piazza della Rotonda

 

I think The Pantheon (also known as The Rotonda) is one of the great surprises of Rome, not just because of how well it has survived almost 2000 years, but also in the way it is enormous yet ‘sneaks’ up on you. It is nestled within a dense urban area and always provides a breath-catch moment as you round a corner and there it is.  I love to walk in from the Corso dei Rinascimento along the small Via del Salvatore (starts on the Corso Rinascimento next to Piazza Navona) to the left of the Italian Senate and Prime Minister’s offices … look for the fancy uniformed guards in front and at the rear entrance at the end of the lane) and then Via Giustiniani, which provides you with your first view of the Pantheon across the Piazza della Rotunda, much like this picture ...

 

 

The Pantheon (from Greek meaning "every god") is on the site of an earlier building commissioned by Marcus Agrippa during the reign of Augustus (27 BCE – 14 CE). The present building was completed by the emperor Hadrian and probably dedicated about 126 CE. He retained Agrippa's original inscription across the portico, which has long confused its date of construction.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The building is circular with a portico of large granite Corinthian columns (eight in the first rank and two groups of four behind) under a pediment. A rectangular vestibule links the porch to the rotunda, which is under a coffered concrete dome, with a central opening (oculus) to the sky. Almost two thousand years after it was built, the Pantheon's dome is still the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome. The height to the oculus and the diameter of the interior circle are the same, 43.3 metres, so the whole interior would fit exactly within a cube. The stresses in the dome are 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. The building was originally approached by a flight of steps, although later construction raised the level of the ground leading to the portico, eliminating the steps.

 

The pediment was decorated with relief sculpture (see translation below), probably of gilded bronze. Holes marking the location of clamps that held the sculpture suggest that its design was likely an eagle within a wreath; ribbons extended from the wreath into the corners of the pediment. The grey granite columns were quarried in Egypt at Mons Claudianus in the eastern mountains. Each is 39 feet (11.9 m) tall, 5 feet (1.5 m) in diameter and 60 tons in weight. These were dragged more than 100 km from the quarry to the river on wooden sledges. They were floated by barge down the Nile River when the water level was high during the spring floods, and then transferred to vessels to cross the Mediterranean Sea to the Roman port of Ostia. There, they were transferred back onto barges and pulled up the Tiber River to Rome. After being unloaded near the Mausoleum of Augustus, the site of the Pantheon was still about 700 metres away. It was then necessary to either drag them or to move them on rollers to the construction site.

 

The inscription on the front of the temple reads:

 

M·AGRIPPA·L·F·COS·TERTIVM·FECIT or in full: "M[arcus] AGRIPPA L[ucii] F[ilius] CO[n]S[ul] TERTIVM FECIT"

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

 

It is one of the best-preserved of all Ancient Roman buildings, in large part because the site has been in continuous use throughout its history and since the 7th.C.CE. The Pantheon has been used as a church dedicated to "St. Mary and the Martyrs" but informally known as "Santa Maria Rotonda". The square in front of the Pantheon is the Piazza della Rotonda.

 

The Piazza della Rotonda

 

Although the Pantheon has stood from antiquity, the area in front of it had over the centuries become choked with a maze of sheds and small shops that had grown up around its columns. These medieval additions were cleared by order of Pope Eugenius IV (1431–39) and the piazza was laid out and paved.

 

The piazza is roughly rectangular with a central fountain erected in 1575 and the Pantheon to the south. The fountain is still fed with water from the Aqua Virgo, one of 11 aqueducts that supplied ancient Rome with drinking water. The obelisk, constructed by Pharaoh Ramses II, was originally used in ancient times in an Egyptian shrine that stood near the Pantheon, lost under rubble then rediscovered in 1374 underneath the apse of the nearby Basilica Santa Maria Sopra Minerva (see page on obelisks) and added to the fountain in 1711.

During the 19th.C., the piazza was especially noted for its market of bird-sellers, who brought their cages with live parrots, nightingales, owls and other birds into the piazza.  Mind you, the piazza is much nicer now than in the early 1800’s, when it was described as “surrounded by all that is most revolting to the senses, distracted by incessant uproar, pestered with a crowd of clamorous beggars, and stuck fast in the congregated filth of every description that covers the slippery pavement ... Nothing resembling such a hole as this could exist in England; nor is it possible that an English imagination can conceive a combination of such disgusting dirt, such filthy odours and foul puddles, such as that which fills the vegetable market in the Piazza della Rotonda at Rome."

 

 

In 1823, Pope Pius VII, tired of the mess the square had become, had a large marble plaque erected on the wall opposite The Pantheon, still visible, which reads:

"Pius Maximus, pontifex maximus, in the twenty third year of his pontificate, on the square in front of M. Agrippa's Pantheon, occupied by vile taverns, justifies their providential demolition on account of their loathsome ugliness, and orders that the view be left unhindered."

 

 

 

 

 

The piazza is a lovely spot to stop for a coffee (or a G&T… the many bars are renowned for their generous servings, though of course expect to pay ‘tourist’ prices, and for people-watching in general.  You always feel safe because ‘Maximus’ (and often his wife) and several other Roman gladiators are usually on-duty outside the Pantheon, ready to have their picture taken for a small (!) fee. Funny how their open sandals get replaced with army boots in winter, although the wind must whistle up their tunics. In 2017 the Commune of Rome passed laws banning the 'Gladiatori', however this is being disputed in the courts.

I suspect the fight is not over. (2023 update: Maximus is still missing.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SW 2023.1

 

​... back to top of page

 

 

 

The Pantheon
and the Piazza della Rotonda

Go to:

  • a general description below; ... or
  • a detailed description <HERE>; ... or
  • a more a description of the surrounding area. <HERE>

The Pantheon and the Piazza della Rotonda

 

I think The Pantheon (also known as The Rotonda) is one of the great surprises of Rome, not just because of how well it has survived almost 2000 years, but also in the way it is enormous yet ‘sneaks’ up on you. It is nestled within a dense urban area and always provides a breath-catch moment as you round a corner and there it is.  I love to walk in from the Corso dei Rinascimento along the small Via del Salvatore (starts on the Corso Rinascimento next to Piazza Navona) to the left of the Italian Senate and Prime Minister’s offices … look for the fancy uniformed guards in front and at the rear entrance at the end of the lane) and then Via Giustiniani, which provides you with your first view of the Pantheon across the Piazza della Rotunda, much like this picture ...

 

 

The Pantheon (from Greek meaning "every god") is on the site of an earlier building commissioned by Marcus Agrippa during the reign of Augustus (27 BCE – 14 CE). The present building was completed by the emperor Hadrian and probably dedicated about 126 CE. He retained Agrippa's original inscription across the portico, which has long confused its date of construction.

 

 

The building is circular with a portico of large granite Corinthian columns (eight in the first rank and two groups of four behind) under a pediment. A rectangular vestibule links the porch to the rotunda, which is under a coffered concrete dome, with a central opening (oculus) to the sky. Almost two thousand years after it was built, the Pantheon's dome is still the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome. The height to the oculus and the diameter of the interior circle are the same, 43.3 metres, so the whole interior would fit exactly within a cube. The stresses in the dome are 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. The building was originally approached by a flight of steps, although later construction raised the level of the ground leading to the portico, eliminating the steps.

 

The pediment was decorated with relief sculpture (see translation below), probably of gilded bronze. Holes marking the location of clamps that held the sculpture suggest that its design was likely an eagle within a wreath; ribbons extended from the wreath into the corners of the pediment. The grey granite columns were quarried in Egypt at Mons Claudianus in the eastern mountains. Each is 39 feet (11.9 m) tall, 5 feet (1.5 m) in diameter and 60 tons in weight. These were dragged more than 100 km from the quarry to the river on wooden sledges. They were floated by barge down the Nile River when the water level was high during the spring floods, and then transferred to vessels to cross the Mediterranean Sea to the Roman port of Ostia. There, they were transferred back onto barges and pulled up the Tiber River to Rome. After being unloaded near the Mausoleum of Augustus, the site of the Pantheon was still about 700 metres away. It was then necessary to either drag them or to move them on rollers to the construction site.

 

The inscription on the front of the temple reads:

 

M·AGRIPPA·L·F·COS·TERTIVM·FECIT or in full: "M[arcus] AGRIPPA L[ucii] F[ilius] CO[n]S[ul] TERTIVM FECIT"

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

 

It is one of the best-preserved of all Ancient Roman buildings, in large part because the site has been in continuous use throughout its history and since the 7th.C.CE. The Pantheon has been used as a church dedicated to "St. Mary and the Martyrs" but informally known as "Santa Maria Rotonda". The square in front of the Pantheon is the Piazza della Rotonda.

 

The Piazza della Rotonda

 

Although the Pantheon has stood from antiquity, the area in front of it had over the centuries become choked with a maze of sheds and small shops that had grown up around its columns. These medieval additions were cleared by order of Pope Eugenius IV (1431–39) and the piazza was laid out and paved.

 

The piazza is roughly rectangular with a central fountain erected in 1575 and the Pantheon to the south. The fountain is still fed with water from the Aqua Virgo, one of 11 aqueducts that supplied ancient Rome with drinking water. The obelisk, constructed by Pharaoh Ramses II, was originally used in ancient times in an Egyptian shrine that stood near the Pantheon, lost under rubble then rediscovered in 1374 underneath the apse of the nearby Basilica Santa Maria Sopra Minerva (see page on obelisks) and added to the fountain in 1711.

During the 19th.C., the piazza was especially noted for its market of bird-sellers, who brought their cages with live parrots, nightingales, owls and other birds into the piazza.  Mind you, the piazza is much nicer now than in the early 1800’s, when it was described as “surrounded by all that is most revolting to the senses, distracted by incessant uproar, pestered with a crowd of clamorous beggars, and stuck fast in the congregated filth of every description that covers the slippery pavement ... Nothing resembling such a hole as this could exist in England; nor is it possible that an English imagination can conceive a combination of such disgusting dirt, such filthy odours and foul puddles, such as that which fills the vegetable market in the Piazza della Rotonda at Rome."

 

 

In 1823, Pope Pius VII, tired of the mess the square had become, had a large marble plaque erected on the wall opposite The Pantheon, still visible, which reads:

"Pius Maximus, pontifex maximus, in the twenty third year of his pontificate, on the square in front of M. Agrippa's Pantheon, occupied by vile taverns, justifies their providential demolition on account of their loathsome ugliness, and orders that the view be left unhindered."

 

 

 

 

 

The piazza is a lovely spot to stop for a coffee (or a G&T… the many bars are renowned for their generous servings, though of course expect to pay ‘tourist’ prices, and for people-watching in general.  You always feel safe because ‘Maximus’ (and often his wife) and several other Roman gladiators are usually on-duty outside the Pantheon, ready to have their picture taken for a small (!) fee. Funny how their open sandals get replaced with army boots in winter, although the wind must whistle up their tunics. In 2017 the Commune of Rome passed laws banning the 'Gladiatori', however this is being disputed in the courts.  I suspect the fight is not over. (2023 update: Maximus is still missing.)

 

SW 2023.1

 

 

 

​... back to top of page