St. Peters - Rome

St. Peters - Rome, originally uploaded by T.SC.

The dome of St. Peters in Rome with the baldachin by Bernini beneath. Shot with Ilford Delta 3200
The dome of St. Peters is a building which was originally built as a temple to the seven deities of the seven planets in the state religion of Ancient Rome. Agrippa's Pantheon was destroyed along with other buildings in a huge fire in 80 AD; the current building dates from about 125 AD, during the reign of the Emperor Hadrian, as date-stamps on the bricks reveal.

It was totally reconstructed with the text of the original inscription added to the new facade, a common practice in Hadrian's rebuilding projects all over Rome. Hadrian was a cosmopolitan emperor who traveled widely in the east and was a great admirer of Greek culture. He seems to have intended the Pantheon, a temple to all the gods, to be a kind of ecumenical or syncretist gesture to the subjects of the Roman Empire who did not worship the old gods of Rome, or who (as was increasingly the case) worshipped them under other names. How the building was actually used is not known.

It is the best preserved of all Roman buildings, and perhaps the best preserved building of its age in the world. It has been in continuous use throughout its history. Although the identity of the Pantheon's primary architect remains uncertain, it is largely assigned to Apollodorus of Damascus. Since the 7th century, the Pantheon has been used as a Christian church.

Visiting it was difficult because of it's free access all day, making it impossible to stand freely in some spots and to take pictures. So ... we attended mass on Sunday morning.
With only a few other devouts we had the chance to stand in this two thousand years remarkable piece of architecture and listen to the ceremony in Italian. The rain was pouring through the dome's roof hole, but it was still a great moment. Yes I did follow the mass appropriatly and my camera was stored away. I took this picture just after mass and just before it was impossible to stand anywhere because of the frantic tourists clicking away.

Since the Renaissance the Pantheon has been used as a tomb. Among those buried there are the painters Raphael and Annibale Caracci, the architect Baldassare Peruzzi. Also buried there are two kings of Italy: Vittorio Emanuele II and Umberto I, as well as Umberto's Queen, Margherita. Although Italy has been a republic since 1946, volunteer members of Italian monarchist organisations maintain a vigil over the royal tombs in the Pantheon