Pantheon

On May 13, 609 Pope Boniface I converted the Pantheon in Rome into a Catholic church. A short excerpt from the text:

"PANTHEON DOME
Made primarily from bricks and concrete, the Pantheon consists of three sections: a portico with granite columns, a massive domed rotunda and a rectangular area connecting the other two sections.

Measuring 142 feet in diameter, the domed ceiling was the largest of its kind when it was built. At to the top of the dome sits an opening, or oculus, 27 feet in width. The oculus, which has no covering, lets light—as well as rain and other weather—into the Pantheon.

The walls and floor of the rotunda are decorated with marble and gilt and the domed ceiling contains five rings of 28 rectangular coffers.

When the artist Michelangelo saw the Pantheon, centuries after its construction, he reportedly said it was the design of angels, not of man. The Pantheon proved an important influence for the great Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio, as well as countless architects who followed, in Europe and beyond."