The Pantheon and its legend 3-hour tour
Discover the best-preserved monument from Ancient Rome on a tour of the Pantheon. Located on the site of a building commissioned by Marcus Agrippa during the reign of Augustus, the present building was completed by the Emperor Hadrian around 126 AD. Hadrian retained Agrippa's original inscription, leading to confusion about the date of construction.
Once inside the Pantheon, your guide will explain the history of the temple of all gods. Hear how Agrippa commenced its construction after the Battle of Actium (31 BC) as part of a complex within his Campus Martius. It is thought that the Pantheon, along with the Basilica of Neptune, were Agrippa's “Sacra Privata” rather than “Aedes Publicae” (public temples).
Continue to the Palazzo Montecitorio to see the seat of the Italian Chamber of Deputies. The palace was originally designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini for Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi (the nephew of Pope Gregory XV). However, work stopped after the death of Gregory XV in 1623, and wasn’t restarted until the papacy of Pope Innocent XII (Antonio Pignatelli).
See Bernini's addition of a bell gable above the main entrance, and hear about Innocent XII's firm anti-nepotism policies. Learn about the Curia Apostolica (papal law courts), and how the building was later used as the headquarters of the Governatorato di Roma, the city administration during the papal period. See the excavated obelisk of the Solarium Augusti, now known as the “Obelisk of Montecitorio,” installed by Pius VI in 1789.
Go to the funerary monument of the Mausoleum of Augustus, originally located in the northern part of the Campus Martius. The mausoleum was begun by Augustus in 28 BC on his return from Alexandria, after conquering Egypt and defeating Marco Antonionella in the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. References to Hellenism are confirmed by the decision to erect a dynastic burial site similar to that of Alexander the Great at the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, built around 350 BC in honor of King Mausolus.
End at the Ara Pacis Augustae altar dedicated to the Roman goddess of Pax (Peace). Commissioned by the Roman Senate in 13 BC to honor the return of Augustus to Rome after 3 years in Hispania and Gaul, the Ara Pacis was consecrated on 30 January 9 BC, and reflects the Augustan vision of Roman civil religion.