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The Pantheon

Rome's best-preserved ancient building: a 1,900-year-old temple whose unreinforced concrete dome has never been surpassed.

The Oculus • The Dome • Raphael's Tomb

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Your Perfect Roman Experience

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The 9-Meter Oculus

The rotunda's only window, open to the sky

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Best Light: Midday

The sunbeam sweeps the coffered dome

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When It Rains

Watch the shower fall through the open roof

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A Working Church

Mass is still said beneath the dome

🧭 Why Visit

Walk through the bronze doors and you are standing in the best-preserved building of ancient Rome, under a concrete dome no one has out-built in nineteen centuries. Light pours through the nine-meter oculus, rain falls through it and drains away, and the whole room turns slowly with the sun.

🏛️ A Little History

Marcus Agrippa raised the first Pantheon here in 27 BC, and Hadrian rebuilt it after two fires, finishing around 128 AD while keeping Agrippa's name on the frieze. Consecration as the church of Santa Maria ad Martyres in 609 spared it the quarrying that stripped the Forum. Raphael chose to be buried here in 1520, and the kings of united Italy followed him.

💡 Did You Know?

The rotunda is a perfect exercise in geometry: 43.3 meters across and precisely as high, so a sphere would sit inside it exactly. The concrete grows lighter as it climbs, ending in a pumice mix just 1.4 meters thick around the oculus, which works as a ring in compression. There is no keystone. The hole is the trick.

The Arrival

Piazza della Rotonda

The square, the fountain, and the temple front that has anchored this corner of Rome for nineteen centuries.

The Pantheon seen across Piazza della Rotonda on a sunny day, portico and rotunda in full view
Across the PiazzaThe first full view from Piazza della Rotonda. The portico and the great drum behind it read as two different buildings until you step inside and they resolve into one.
Front facade of the Pantheon at dusk with the M. Agrippa inscription across the frieze
Evening on the PorchEvening light on the porch. The inscription credits Marcus Agrippa, but the building we see is Hadrian's rebuild, finished around 128 AD.
Obelisk and fountain of Piazza della Rotonda rising in front of the Pantheon pediment
The Obelisk and the FountainGiacomo della Porta designed the fountain in 1575. The obelisk of Ramses II joined it in 1711, when Filippo Barigioni rebuilt the basin for Clement XI.
Sixteen Columns

The Portico

Monolithic granite shafts shipped whole from Egypt, and the timber ceiling that replaced the bronze Urban VIII melted down.

Looking up at the Pantheon portico granite columns and Corinthian capitals against a blue sky
Sixty Tons ApieceSixteen monolithic granite columns hold up the porch. Each shaft crossed the Mediterranean from Egypt in one piece, nearly twelve meters and some sixty tons.
Timber ceiling of the Pantheon portico above Corinthian column capitals
What the Barberini DidThe porch once carried bronze trusses. Urban VIII melted them down in the 1620s, and Rome answered with a pasquinade: what the barbarians did not do, the Barberini did.
Piazza della Rotonda framed between two dark granite columns of the Pantheon portico
Looking Back OutLooking back the way we came. From the shade of the portico, the fountain, the obelisk, and the afternoon crowd.
The great bronze doors of the Pantheon seen from the portico with the rotunda beyond
The Bronze DoorsThe bronze doors are likely medieval replacements, and they still look small for the opening. Through them, the oldest continuously used interior in Rome.
The Eye

Under the Dome

Forty-three meters of unreinforced Roman concrete with a nine-meter hole at the top, doing exactly what it has done since Hadrian.

Beam of sunlight streaming through the Pantheon oculus across the coffered dome
The BeamMidday sun through the oculus. The nine-meter opening is the rotunda's only window, and the beam works its way around the coffers like a slow sundial.
Sunbeam from the oculus lighting the Pantheon dome, seen from near the entrance
From the DoorwayThe beam from the doorway. Rain falls through the same opening and slips away through discreet drains in the floor.
Pantheon dome and oculus with the gilded apse half dome and attic level below
A Perfect SphereThe dome is a perfect hemisphere: 43.3 meters across and exactly that from floor to oculus. A sphere would fit inside the room.
The coffered ceiling of the Pantheon dome centered on the open oculus
No KeystoneFive rings of twenty-eight coffers, cast lighter as they climb. Near the top the concrete is pumice-laced and only 1.4 meters thick, and there is no keystone at all, just the ring of the oculus.
A Working Church

The Altar and the Chapels

Santa Maria ad Martyres since 609: the golden apse, a Renaissance Annunciation, and the artists' own chapel.

High altar of the Pantheon beneath the gilded semi dome of the apse
The High AltarThe high altar under its golden half dome. A seventh-century icon of the Virgin hangs above it; this has been the church of Santa Maria ad Martyres since 609.
Side view of the Pantheon high altar with fluted Corinthian columns and the dome above
From the Side AisleThe altar from the side aisle, where the giant Corinthian order and the marble attic carry the eye up into the dome.
Annunciation fresco attributed to Melozzo da Forli in a chapel of the Pantheon
The AnnunciationThe Annunciation in the first chapel, attributed to Melozzo da Forli. Renaissance paint resting on an ancient Roman wall.
Altar and statue of St. Joseph with the Child in the Chapel of the Virtuosi at the Pantheon
Chapel of the VirtuosiThe Chapel of St. Joseph of the Holy Land, seat of the Virtuosi al Pantheon, the confraternity of artists that has worshipped here since the 1500s.
Kings and a Painter

The Tombs

Raphael beneath his Madonna, and the first two kings of united Italy across the rotunda from each other.

The ancient sarcophagus of Raphael's tomb in the Pantheon with its lit Latin inscription
RaphaelRaphael has rested here since 1520. Bembo's epitaph is carved on the sarcophagus: here lies Raphael, by whom nature feared to be outdone while he lived, and, as he died, to die.
Lorenzetto's Madonna del Sasso statue in a marble niche above Raphael's tomb
Madonna del SassoThe Madonna del Sasso by Lorenzetto, commissioned by Raphael himself for his tomb. She has stood over him for five centuries.
Tomb of Victor Emmanuel II in the Pantheon with bronze eagle and Padre della Patria plaque
The First KingThe tomb of Victor Emmanuel II, first king of united Italy, beneath Manfredo Manfredi's great bronze eagle. Padre della Patria, father of the fatherland.
Porphyry tomb of King Umberto I and Queen Margherita in the Pantheon with fresh flowers
Umberto and MargheritaUmberto I and Queen Margherita rest in Giuseppe Sacconi's porphyry tomb, directly across the rotunda from his father.
How It Stands

The Fabric

The floor, the flank, and the bare brick at the back, where the building shows its working.

Ancient geometric marble floor of the Pantheon in porphyry and pavonazzetto
The Original FloorThe floor still follows its original pattern of squares and circles in granite, porphyry, and pavonazzetto, and it dips gently toward the drains that carry away the rain.
Side of the Pantheon portico showing the outline of the unbuilt higher pediment against the rotunda
The Ghost PedimentOn the flank, the ghost of a second, higher pediment. The fifty-foot columns the design called for never arrived, so the builders adapted, and the scar stayed.
Rear brick drum of the Pantheon rotunda with relieving arches visible
The Engineering ShowsAround the back the marble is gone and the engineering shows. Brick relieving arches ring the drum, walking the dome's five thousand tonnes down to the ground.
Rome by Night

After Dark

The piazza after the crowds go home, and the floodlit temple around the corner that closes the walk.

The Pantheon facade illuminated at night with an almost empty piazza
Nearly MidnightClose to midnight the piazza finally empties, and the lamps do for the inscription what the daytime crowds never allow.
Pantheon fountain and obelisk at night with the floodlit portico behind
The Fountain After DarkDella Porta's fountain after dark, the obelisk black against the sky and the portico glowing behind it.
Floodlit rotunda and portico junction of the Pantheon at night
FloodlitAround the side after dark, floodlights rake the drum and pick out eighteen centuries of patched brick and travertine.
Floodlit columns of the Temple of Hadrian in Piazza di Pietra at night
Hadrian's Own TempleTwo minutes away in Piazza di Pietra, eleven columns of Hadrian's own temple stand floodlit in a later wall. Antoninus Pius dedicated it to him in 145 AD. The night walk ends here.

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Visiting the Pantheon

  • Go at opening or in the last hour. From midmorning to late afternoon the rotunda fills shoulder to shoulder. The first hour is the emptiest, and late day sends low light across the coffers.
  • Remember it is a consecrated church. Mass is celebrated on Sundays and holy days, visits pause during services, and the dress code is the same as any church in Rome.
  • Come back in the rain if you can. The shower falling through the oculus onto the marble floor is one of the best sights in the city, and the ancient drains beneath the pavement still do their job.
  • Stay for the night walk. The piazza empties late, the portico is floodlit, and the Temple of Hadrian in Piazza di Pietra is two minutes away.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you need a ticket for the Pantheon?
Yes. After centuries of free entry, ticketed admission began in July 2023, bookable online or at the door. Check the official site for current prices and free categories. Worshippers attending Mass enter free.
How big is the dome?
43.3 meters across, and the same measurement from the floor to the oculus, so a sphere would fit exactly inside. It is still the largest unreinforced concrete dome ever built, and the oculus at its crown is about nine meters wide and completely open.
Does rain really come through the oculus?
Yes, straight onto the marble floor. The pavement is gently convex and pierced by ancient drains, so the water runs off almost as fast as it lands.
Who is buried in the Pantheon?
Raphael, beneath Lorenzetto's Madonna del Sasso and Bembo's famous epitaph, along with the painters Annibale Carracci and Taddeo Zuccari, and the first two kings of united Italy, Victor Emmanuel II and Umberto I, who rests with Queen Margherita.

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