The Pantheon. Rome, Italy
On my last day in Rome I visited the Pantheon . It was a great way finish my trip, with journey into Rome’s past. The word pantheon means temple to all the gods. That describes not only the original purpose of the building, but also its history up to today. The original temple was constructed between 29-19 BCE by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa , a Roman general. It was built to be a place to worship all of the gods of the Roman belief system. That building, and its replacement were both destroyed by fires, with only its facade and entryway surviving. In 114 CE, the emperor Trajan ordered the Pantheon rebuilt and hired Apollodorus of Damascus to design it. The temple was finished by Emperor Hadrian sometime after 117 CE. In 609 CE, the structure was consecrated as a Catholic basilica in the name of Saint Mary and the Martyrs, a role that it still holds today. As such, the Pantheon is considered to be the oldest, continuously used, religious building in the western world. "Marcus Agripp...
