Pantheon Entry Ticket

The Pantheon is the best preserved building of ancient Rome, and the reason is simple: it never stopped being used. In 609 AD the emperor Phocas gave it to the pope, it was consecrated as the church of Santa Maria ad Martyres, and a working church does not get quarried for its stone. Almost every other classical building in the city did.

The inscription across the portico reads M·AGRIPPA·L·F·COS·TERTIVM·FECIT, "Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius, three times consul, built this". It is not quite true of the building you enter. Agrippa's temple of 27 BC burned down. What stands now was built by Hadrian around 113 to 125 AD, and he kept his predecessor's name on the front rather than his own.

Inside is a sphere. The dome is 43.3 metres across and its top is 43.3 metres above the floor, so a perfect sphere would fit exactly within the space. It remains the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world, nineteen centuries after it was poured. The Romans managed it by changing the mix as they went up: heavy travertine aggregate at the base, then brick, then porous volcanic tuff and light pumice near the crown, and by thinning the shell from about six metres at the springing to just over a metre at the top. The five rings of coffers cut still more weight out of it.

At the summit the oculus is nine metres wide and genuinely open. Rain comes in. The floor beneath is slightly convex and drained through holes cut in the marble, and on a bright day the disc of sunlight moves across the walls like the hand of a clock. It is also the only light source, which is why the interior changes completely with the weather.

Raphael is buried here, at his own request, with the epitaph written by Pietro Bembo. Two kings of Italy, Vittorio Emanuele II and Umberto I, lie in the side chapels.

Entry now requires a ticket. It remains an active church, so shoulders and knees must be covered and access can be limited during services.

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