The Pantheon, Rome: Built in 125 AD, Still Standing

The Pantheon is the best-preserved ancient building in the world. Originally built as a temple to all the gods of Rome around 125 AD under Hadrian, it was converted to a Christian church in 609 AD and has been in continuous use ever since. That uninterrupted occupancy is the reason it survived while most of antiquity crumbled: a building in constant use gets repaired, not abandoned.

The building’s engineering achievement is the dome. At 43.3 metres in diameter, it was the largest concrete dome in the world until Brunelleschi completed the Florence Duomo in 1436, more than 1,300 years later. The oculus at the dome’s summit (9 metres across) is the only source of natural light inside and is open to the sky: when it rains, the floor gets wet. A slight convex curve in the marble floor drains water toward hidden channels. This is how seriously the builders took the rain.

Tickets: The Current System

As of 2026, tickets are required for all visitors. The full-price ticket is 5 euros until June 30, 2026, rising to 7 euros from July 1. EU citizens aged 18-25 pay 2 euros. Entry remains free for Rome residents, worshippers, everyone under 18, and visitors with disabilities, and it remains free on the first Sunday of every month (though that Sunday is consistently the most crowded day).

Book online only through the official Musei Italiani platform (direzionemuseiroma.cultura.gov.it) or at the physical ticket office. Numerous unofficial third-party sites sell Pantheon tickets at markups of 15-30 euros; they are unnecessary and the building genuinely does not justify that premium when the real tickets cost five.

Timed entry slots are enforced. Morning slots from 09:00 to 11:00 fill fastest; afternoon slots from 14:00 onward have better availability even in peak season. Tickets are released on a rolling basis and sell out 2-3 days ahead on weekends.

What to Expect Inside

The interior is a single circular room. The visual impact on first entry, the dome above, the ring of niches around the walls, the quality of light from the oculus, tends to produce a moment of genuine stillness in people who weren’t expecting it. This is not an exaggeration; it happens reliably.

The tombs of Raphael (third chapel on the left) and the kings Vittorio Emanuele II and Umberto I are here. The inscription on Raphael’s tomb reads: “Here lies Raphael, by whom Nature feared to be outdone while he lived, and when he died, feared that she herself would die.” This was written by Cardinal Pietro Bembo in the 16th century. It’s one of the better epitaphs in any language.

On April 21 each year, the anniversary of the founding of Rome, the oculus aligns with the main entrance in a specific way that floods the doorway with concentrated light. This is not coincidental. The engineers designed it. Whether to read it as a tribute to the solar calendar, to the founding mythology, or simply to the pleasure of light used well is up to you.

The Piazza della Rotonda

The piazza around the Pantheon is permanently lively. The 1575 fountain at its centre adds an Egyptian obelisk above the original Giacomo della Porta basin: one of Rome’s characteristic spatial arrangements, the ancient and the Renaissance layered without comment.

Cafe and restaurant prices on the piazza are inflated by the real estate they occupy. Two streets away, prices return to something reasonable. Supplì Roma on Via dei Tribunali (10 minutes’ walk) is the reference point for Roma-style supplì, fried rice balls with mozzarella. Sant’Eustachio il Caffè on the piazza di Sant’Eustachio, five minutes’ walk, makes what is a plausible claim to the best espresso in Rome and has been doing so since 1938.

Getting There

The Pantheon is in the Pigna area of Rome’s historic centre, walkable from Campo de’ Fiori (10 minutes), Piazza Navona (5 minutes), and Piazza Venezia (12 minutes). No metro station is particularly close; buses 40, 64, and 87 stop nearby. Walking from Termini station takes about 25 minutes through the historic centre, which is a good route regardless.

Nearby

Piazza Navona, 5 minutes’ walk, has Bernini’s Fountain of the Four Rivers (1651) as its centrepiece. The square has good atmosphere in the evening.

Sant’Ignazio di Loyola church, 3 minutes from the Pantheon, has an extraordinary trompe l’oeil ceiling by Andrea Pozzo (1694) that creates the illusion of a full architectural dome from a specific spot on the nave floor marked by a disc. It’s free, rarely crowded, consistently surprising, and represents a 17th-century approach to the problem of not having enough money for an actual dome that is more interesting than the real thing.