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Pantheon,
the
first building was erected in 27 B. C. by
Marcus Vespasiano Agrippa, the faithful
advisor of Augustus.
In Trajan's time,
the temple was completely rebuilt by Hadrian
between 118 and 128, in thè form we still see
today.
The inscription on
the frieze of the porch, Marcus Agrippa,
son of Lucius, consul tertrium
fecit, was therefore placed there by Hadrian
who never put his own name on any of the monuments
he built.
If you haven't already
stumbled on the Pantheon by chance, follow
V. dei Pastini west out of Piazza di Pietra
into Piazza della Rotonda, a sloping
outdoor drawing room, with a lovely Renaissance
fountain at the center surrounded by
gelato-eating tourists who can't take their
eyes off the most extraordinary building of
all antiquity, the Pantheon .
The inscription
over the portico-M. AGRIPPA. L.F.COSTERTIUM
FECIT (Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius, Consul
for the third time, built_this)-incorrecdy credits
the Pantheon to Agrippa, whose earlier
"temple of all the gods" was part of a vast
1st-c. B.C. complex. It is to Hadrian we owe
the present Pantheon, which dates to 125 A.D.,
and to its 7th-c. consecration as the church
of St. Mary and All Saints we credit its
survival.
Like most Roman
structures, it was cannibalized over the
years-its dome stripped bare in 655, the bronze
of the portico's beams carted off to be melted
down for St. Peter's baldacchino and
Castel S. Angelo's cannonballs-but its
perfect proportions are unchanged, its massive
columns still stand, and its astonishing
hemispherical dome-whose 140-foot (43-meter)
diameter inches out St. Peter's, for which it
served as model-still soars above the marble
floor.
Enter through the
bronze doors, one of three sets that
survive from Hadrian's day, and stand
for a while beneath the oculus. For lunch,
follow V. del Pantheon to V. delle Colonnelle.
 A
stone's throw from the Pantheon, the
Church of S. Maria sopra Minerva
faces onto a small square punctuated by another
of Rome's 13 obelisks, this one mounted
on the back of an elephant by Bernini.
Built over (sopra) the ruins of a temple to
Minerva in 1290, the church is the Roman
home of the Dominican Order of Preachers,
the principal prosecutors of the Inquisition
(the adjacent monastery is where Galileo
was tried for heresy in 1633),
and contains an
exceptionally rich collection of art, including
works by Duccio, Michelangelo,
Perugino, Bernini, and Lippi
and a 15th-c.
Annunciation that
commemorates the custom of distributing dowries
to impoverished girls. It also contains the
graves of two important Dominicans:
Fra Angelico,
the 15th-c. artist, and St. Catherine of
Siena, who in 1376 persuaded Pope Gregory
XI to return to Rome from Avignon,
ending the 74-year "papal captivity."
(A diagram at the back of the church makes it
easy to identify major works.) Turn left as
you leave the church, right on V. di S. Chiara,
and continue through Piazza dei Caprettari
to the Piazza and church of S. Eustachio,
a 1st-c. martyr who was roasted alive with his
family.
A stag's head,
Eustachio's symbol as patron of the chase,
can be seen at the top of the church. Facing
it is the Palazzo di Tizio di Spoleto , whose
frescoed facade depicts the life of S. Eustachio.
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