Rome's best-preserved ancient building — a 1,900-year-old temple whose unreinforced concrete dome has never been surpassed.
Explore → Get Early AccessThe best-preserved building of ancient Rome — walk in and stand under a 2,000-year-old concrete dome lit by a nine-meter hole open to the sky. Rain falls through and drains away; genius handles the rest.
Hadrian rebuilt it around 126 AD as a temple to all gods; consecration as a church in 609 saved it from the quarrying that ate the Forum. Raphael chose burial here, and Italy's kings followed.
The dome is exactly as wide as it is high — a perfect 43.3-meter sphere would fit inside — and its concrete gets lighter toward the top, with pumice in the mix and the oculus as the keystone that isn't there.
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