Pantheon

Pantheon, temple dedicated to all the gods. The Pantheon of Rome is the best-preserved major edifice of ancient Rome and one of the most significant buildings in architectural history. In shape it is an immense cylinder concealing eight piers, topped with a dome and fronted by a rectangular colonnaded porch. The great vaulted dome is 43.2 m (142 ft) in diameter, and the entire structure is lighted through one aperture, called an oculus, in the center of the dome. The Pantheon was erected by the Roman emperor Hadrian between ad 118 and 128, replacing a smaller temple built by the statesman Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa in 27 bc. In the early 7th century it was consecrated as a church, Santa Maria ad Martyres, to which act it owes its survival (see Architecture).

The term pantheon also refers to a building that serves as a mausoleum or memorial for eminent personages of a country. The most famous example is the Church of Sainte Geneviève in Paris, designed (1764) in the classical style by the French architect Jacques Germain Soufflot. It was later secularized, renamed the Pantheon, and used as a temple to honor the great of France.