Monday: Pantheon

After a short permit of stay meeting at class, me and the roomies headed out to the shopping district. I needed a couple shirts (which I did not find), but the other guys found some much-needed shoes and socks. On our way we stopped by the Pantheon, a site I had yet to visit. It's such a big building in a small square that it's hard to take good photos of the outside, but the interior is quite majestic, especially the oculus up top (the big circular opening). The Pantheon is famous for its dome architecture, which had no precedent in the ancient Roman world. Layers of concrete were poured amid a wooden construction superstructure, if I remember my art history correctly. This design would not be reproduced for over a thousand years; later domes of the medieval and renaissance eras used a different (and more complicated) design structure.

The building used to be host to the major gods of Roman mythology, but since the Middle Ages it has been redecorated an

d rededicated to Christian mythology. The dome however remains untouched, and I am still fascinated by the patterned squares that adorn the interior above.