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The Pantheon
The great sense of harmony of the interior is due to its perfect proportions: the diameter is the same as the height, 140 ft., the dome takes exactly half of the height. If you imagine the dome continuing down in its curve, it would form a perfect sphere touching the floor. The Pantheon was achieved thorough a complicated system of relieving arches embedded in the mass of concrete from its foundations to the summit of the dome. The dome was cast as a unique block of cement on a framework with the coffered design on its reserve, using gradually higher building material in successive layers to the summit, while diminishing its thickness from 5.90 meters at the base to 1.50 meters at the top. This dome, entirely built without reinforcement, has been the greatest in the world to this century, (St. Peter's is three ft. less); an engineering feat of the first order which shows the profound knowledge of the techniques of construction required by the intricacy of calculation, which any layman can guess. Buried in the Pantheon are some of Italy's great artists. There is first of all Raphael; he was also named architect in chief on the new St,. Peter's at the Vatican by Pope Leo X and was given absolute authority over all monuments, buildings and ruins within a circuit of ten miles around Rome and devoted himself to the study of ancient buildings and ruins (it would not be inappropriate to call him one of the first archeologists in the world). He certainly found in the Pantheon that majestic spirit of the classical world which inspired him and the other great men of the Italian Renaissance. Raphael died at the age of 37, on 6th April 1520, and when he felt the approach of death he expressed the wish to rest in the Pantheon. Over Raphael's grave is the work of his disciple Lorenzetto, the Madonna del Sasso, the Madonna of the Stone. After the unification of Italy, the Pantheon was chosen as the mausoleum for the kings; Vittorio Emanuele II and Umberto I with Queen Margherita di Savoia, his wife, are buried in the smaller apses to the right and left.
Hadrian's tomb was the mausoleum of the emperors for only sixty years; in 271 it was included in the Aurelian wall, and in 410 it was sacked by the Goths of Alaric. It was first used as a fortress during the siege of Vitigis, another king of the Goths. During the XV and XVI centuries it took on its present appearance; and as it was built as a refuge for the Popes, their apartments were decorated by several of the same artists who worked in the Vatican. If you have some spare time to devote to the exploration of Castel Sant'Angelo, you will find there several works by the disciples of Raphael. This place has also acquired sinister fame as a state prison, you have its parallel in the Tower of London; many visitors will recall Castel Sant' Angelo from the opera La Tosca in which it appears in the third act as a prison. Leading to St. Peter's Square is the street of Conciliation; this new, direct, monumental approach to the Vatican, from Rome, was called Conciliation to commemorate the signing of the Lateran Pact in 1929, and was inaugurated in 1950 on the occasion of the Jubilee Year. (With the unification of Italy accomplished in 1861, the Papal State was occupied, and the Pope, Pius IX, refused to deliver the city of Rome to the King. In 1870 on September 20th, Rome was taken over with violence by King Victor Emmanuel 11 and there were no further diplomatic relations between the Italian State arid the Vatican until 1929 when, on February 11th, the Lateran Pact was signed and the sovreignties of both the Pope and the Italian King were mutually recognized.)
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We'll continue across the narrow streets of Campus Martius by the national church of France. St. Louis of the French, another artistic treasurehouse church built in the XVI century which contains three precious Caravaggio's: the Calling, the Martyrdom of St. Matthew and St. Matthew with the Angel. Then crossing the Tiber we find ouselves in front of the Palazzo di Giustizia, the Hall of Justice, built in 1911 by the architect Calderini; but the great sight is on your left as you cross the river, the Sant'Angelo Bridge and Castel Sant'Angelo with St. Peter's dome in the far background. The bridge is the one Emperor Hadrian therew across the Tiber as an approach to his huge mausoleum, which he started building in 130 A.D. and which was completed by Antoninus Pius in 139 A.D. The popes made the mausoleum into a fortress and for centuries it was their stronghold. The name of Castel Sant'Angelo is derived from the vision of Pope Gregory I who in 5VO led a procession to petition God to stop a plague; while crossing the bridge he saw on top of the fortress the Archangel Michael sheathing a flaming sword, the divine signal that the pestilence was over. (Incidentally, the symptoms of the plague were attacks of sneezing and yawning. When people saw friends yawning and sneezing they made the sign of the cross and said, as the Pope had ordered. This habit started on that occasion).
