Pantheon

Pantheon (from Greek words meaning “of all gods”), 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. The building’s enormous dome and the walls supporting the dome form a masterpiece of concrete construction. The Pantheon was erected by Roman emperor Hadrian between ad 118 and 128, replacing a smaller temple built by Roman 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).

In shape the Roman Pantheon 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, the same as the height of the interior space. The entire structure is lighted through one circular opening, or oculus, measuring about 9 m (30 ft) in diameter, in the center of the dome. The interior cylinder contains seven symmetrically arranged large niches, or shrines; the great front door occupies the place of an eighth. Colored marble covers the interior walls.

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