Pantheon

The Pantheon is by far the most unique church I have seen thus far in Rome. It is really amazing. The way it is built is really cool. The outside is completley decieving, when you walk inside of it it is not what most people would pciture. It took me a while to realize that the hole or 'oculus' in the top of the dome is actually a open and when it rains, it comes right through and the inside of the church gets wet. This was surprising to me because most of the churches here are so strict about what you can and cannot do I never immagined that they would let rain get inside! Also there are big square indents all around the ceiling and dome, they built it like this because they wanted to lighten the weight of the building so it wasn't so heavy. It is amazing to me the techniques that they used to use because now we do things so differently. Also the walls surrounding the church were built extremely thick. They designed it this way so that the inside of the Church would stay cool! Im looking forward to going back and learning more about the artwork they have, so look for my future posts!!

To see where this picture and many more see the following web site: http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/ASH/2235~Interior-of-the-Pantheon-Rome-Posters.jpg