A unique legacy from Antiquity. The best preserved – and still visitable – building of the culture that founded the West. At first, a possible memorial building whose original function is unknown with certainty. After that, a church under the protection of the papacy of Rome. Currently, one of the monuments most admired by those who discover it, eminent among the faded buildings that line one of the busiest squares in the Eternal City. It is known as the Pantheon of Agrippa, and its current appearance is nothing more than the crystallization of its many lives throughout the more than eighteen hundred years that it has stood watching the passage of history.
Its origin dates back to the Rome of Emperor Augustus. Between 27 and 25 a.m. C., Marco Vipsanio Agrippa, his general and political collaborator, had a rectangular building built in the so-called Campo de Mars, in an area that, since the end of the Republic, had experienced great urban and monumental development. The remains of that first construction were found in 1891 under the porch of the current one. It was the result of the excavations of the architects Georges Chedanne and Pier Olinto Armanini, who demonstrated that the Pantheon that we know was not that of Agrippa’s time, but that of Hadrian.
It is believed that the function of the original building was to commemorate Emperor Augustus, and it probably housed a statue of him inside, along with those of other divinities associated with the Julio-Claudian family. After a fire at the end of the 1st century AD. C., Emperor Domitian decided to rebuild it. Bad fortune wanted it to be burned again, and it was finally the Spanish emperor Hadrian who ordered it to be erected, between 118 and 125 AD. C., the architectural work that has survived to this day. Although there is no reference, it is believed that the famous Apollodorus of Damascus hides behind its design.
Hadrian, in his desire to preserve the memory of the place and pay tribute to his predecessors, with whom he was symbolically linked, placed a bronze inscription on the architrave of the entrance porch: “Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius, did it in his third consulate.” Such was the quality of the architectural enterprise that still stands almost two millennia later. In the year 202, Marcus Aurelius and Caracalla restored some parts of the building, as stated in an inscription carved under the bronze one. The effort to preserve the place over the centuries shows that in ancient times it had become one of the main symbols of the city.
In it, two architectural traditions merged, the Greek and the Roman. Currently, access is at street level; In Roman times it was elevated, and, together with other adjacent buildings, it formed a porticoed plaza. It is believed that the dome was barely visible from the outside.
Analysis of the marks and holes in the pediment, now empty, has led to the reconstruction of what could have originally decorated it: a bronze design of an eagle with a garland and ribbons, attributes of Jupiter. It is thought that a statue of Augustus and another of Agrippa would have been located in the niches of the portico. Its internal and external ornamentation makes the building a showcase of the most precious marble from different parts of the Empire.
Once inside, the visitor would necessarily feel overwhelmed. Resting on a circular wall stands a dome 44.4 meters in diameter with an 8.8 meter oculus in its center. Looking at it for a few seconds cannot leave you indifferent. Everyone, from Brunelleschi or Stendhal to the anonymous tourists who walk under its protection every day, have been dazzled by a work in which the smallest details were taken into account. From the composition of the cement and the use of volcanic rock to lighten the weight to the coffers. The function of the latter, although also decorative, is to reduce the load and prevent the dome from collapsing. In fact, without the central oculus, the building would have collapsed. The magnitude of the work guaranteed it the world record for cement constructions for centuries.
At the beginning of the Middle Ages, when the western part of the ancient Roman Empire had disintegrated, the eastern half of it remained active, with its capital at Constantinople. After the political, territorial and administrative restructuring, the so-called Eastern Roman Empire continued to dominate the city of Rome, where the papacy had been acquiring power as the head of the Christian religion, often supported by the eastern emperor.
In this context, a key milestone prevented the Pantheon from falling into ruin and oblivion. Around the year 609, Emperor Phocas donated it to Pope Boniface IV, and it became dedicated to Saint Mary of the Martyrs. Famous artists like Rafael received burial there. During the Renaissance, the place hosted meetings of the Academy of the Virtuosi of Rome, founded in 1542 and dependent on the papacy.
Unlike other cases in which the Church dismantled entire buildings to reuse their materials, its new Christian life assured it almost absolute integrity. Until 1625. Europe was at war, and Pope Urban VIII, belonging to the Barberini lineage of Florence, decided to extract the bronze material from the coffered ceiling of the portico to reinforce the city’s defenses.
More than two hundred tons of bronze were used to create 80 cannons for Castel Sant’Angelo. A decision that was criticized by the people of Rome, defenders of one of its most admirable insignia. It is believed that this is where the famous saying “What the barbarians did not do, the Barberini did” comes from.
To calm the situation, in 1626, the pontiff began a restoration of the building and some of the columns of the portico. However, he could not resist replacing one of the Roman capitals with another with the bee that represents his family. In addition, he commissioned Bernini to add two towers in the area where a bell tower had been erected in medieval times. They, popularly known as “donkey ears”, would be demolished in 1893. At that time, one of the chapels served as a mausoleum for King Victor Emmanuel II, his wife and his son and successor. , Humberto I.
Despite its popularity throughout history, the function of the current Pantheon is still debated. For centuries it has been believed that the name by which we know it (from the Greek pantheion, “all the gods”), together with its decoration and design, was an unequivocal sign of having corresponded to a temple dedicated to Roman divinities or the cult of the imperial family However, there is no direct evidence of this.
It is known that the original building built by Agrippa was intended to honor Augustus. The functionality of the one erected by Hadrian is another question. It is believed that, together with the Forum and the Imperial Palace, it served as a place of audiences for the emperor and that political and public activities took place there.
The reason for the name – and its traditional identification with a temple to all the gods, debated today – is a topic that Dion Cassius, an author between the 2nd and 3rd centuries, already discussed. In his History of Rome, Dion said that perhaps the name came from the statues of gods that decorated the building, among which were Mars and Venus; However, in his opinion, it could derive from the symbolic resemblance of the dome to the heavens. Despite the current debate, we will probably never know.
During the last century, the Pantheon has undergone several restorations. In the 1930s, part of the marble decoration near the central apse was rebuilt. In 2001, various maintenance and sustainability studies were initiated due to the continuous influx of visitors. Currently, managed by the Italian Ministry of Cultural Assets and Activities, it shares its tourist attraction with its religious function as the Basilica of Saint Mary of the Martyrs.
Every Pentecost, after mass, thousands of rose petals are thrown from the oculus into the building, in memory of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the disciples fifty days after Easter. At that moment, tourists and faithful have the possibility to better judge the words of Cassius Dion by comparing the wonderful dome of the Pantheon with the heavens.
This text is part of an article published in number 613 of the magazine Historia y Vida. Do you have something to contribute? Write to us at redaccionhyv@historiayvida.com.