notes:
Crossing the threshold of the Pantheon, you feel that was transported in time by 2,000 years ago. It is easy to imagine the pagan worship, accompanied by sacrifices. Temple of the lack of windows adds. Natural light penetrates only through the "Oculus" - 9-foot hole in the dome - a kind of all-seeing eye of heaven.
Pantheon - one of the most remarkable of Roman buildings. The height of the rotunda is equal to its diameter - 43,3 m. Much later the construction of the dome of the Pantheon himself studied Michelangelo worked on the building of the Cathedral of St. Peter.
In the church service held in the name of the seven most revered Roman gods: Jupiter, Venus, Neptune, Mars, Mercury, Pluto and Saturn. In antiquity, under a hole in the dome of the Pantheon was established ceremonial altar on which the burning of sacrificial animals.
In 609, the Byzantine emperor Foca gave Pantheon Pope Boniface IV, who consecrated him as the Church of Our Lady and all the martyrs. Later, in the XIV-XVI centuries, the building was used as a defensive structure. Only in the Renaissance the Pantheon has been returned to its former luster. Restoration of the temple led Rafael, in 1520, he, according to his instructions, was buried here.