Magic at the Pantheon

As the children gamboled through the Pantheon, one of the world’s most interesting natural/architectural events there took place.

Hierophany – from the Greek roots hieros, meaning “sacred” and phainein, meaning “to bring to light” – occurs on Rome’s birthday, when the beam of sunlight illuminates the Pantheon’s entrance completely.

As if one need one more reason to celebrate Rome’s birthday, here we had it : light magic.

At midday (1 PM with daylight saving time) on April 21 the sun strikes a metal grille above the Pantheon’s doorway, flooding the colonnaded courtyard outside with light.

Mystery has always surrounded what is behind the unusual design of the Pantheon, built by the emperor Hadrian, and one of the most magnificent and best preserved of all Roman monuments.

I am intrigued by the theory that the church acted as a giant sundial, with a beam of light that illuminated him fully in the precise moment when the emperor entered the building.

And if you return to the Pantheon in the next day or so, as I did today, the effects are nearly as remarkable.