The temple of the Pantheon in Rome was built on the area of the "Campo Marzio", where, according to an antique tradition, the founder of city, Romulus, would have reached the sky.
The first part of the structure, built in 27 before Christ on the order of the Consul Marco Agrippa, is made of a square temple in Greek style consecrated to the cult of all the divinities who were adored in the various regions of the empire. After earthquakes and fires, only ninety years later, Adriano thought it was necessary to proceed to a deep restoration. Between 118 and 128 after Christ, in fact, the building sees various modifications in the plan with the addition of the pronaos, and the building of the largest cupola in beton never realized.
Even though the remaining structure of the Pantheon can be considered very different from the previous one, the imperator Adriano wanted that, on the fronton of the portico, was placed an inscription remembering the first commissioner: "M.Agrippa L:F: Cos Tertium Fecit" – "It was built by Marco Agrippa, son of Lucio, consul for the third time".
In 608 after Christ, Foca, imperator of Bisanzio, gives the temple to Pope Bonifacio IV who, after he has consecrated it to the Christian cult, calls it "Sancta Maria ad Martyres"; a few years later, in 663 after Christ, Costante II, new imperator of the oriental empire, gives the order to dislodge and take to Constantinople the tiles in bronze in golden bronze which were recovering the pronaos, but these are stolen by the Arabs during the transportation via sea. Between 1623 and 1644 after Christ, on the order of Pope Urbano VIII Barberini, the bronze decorations of the portico are in part allocated to the construction of the Baldachin of Bernini in San Pietro and in part to the fusion of some cannons for the fortress of Castel Sant'Angelo.
This episode, together with various spoliations of construction materials that in these years were perpetrated on monuments of the imperial Rome, contributed to the birth, among people, of the following dictum: "Quod non fecerunt Barbari, fecerunt Barberini" – "What the barbarians did not do, the Barberini did it". In the same years, under the will of the Pontificate to increase the clerical character of the structure, Bernini projects and manages the works for the construction of two belfries on the sides of the tympanum of the pronaos which, right away invisible to the citizens, tend to be called "the ears of ass", and which will be eliminated at the end of the 19th century. The Pantheon cloaks behind the portico with 16 columns of granite, more or less 14 metres high and with a circumference of more than 4, a circular environment illuminated only by the hole of 9 metres of diameter of the "oculus" located on the top of the cupola.
To reach the 43 metres of highness and at the same time of diameter of the cupola, the Roman architects were constrained to progressively lighten the charges, using materials always lighter and densities always slighter as the construction was proceeding towards the top. While the basement walls in travertine are roughly 6.5 metres large, going up for the 5 remaining concentric sectors of which the Pantheon is made of, the thickness decreases up to 1.5metre, and we see rings in admixture of travertine and volcanic tuff, in tuff and bricks, in bricks, in bricks and hearthstone, and, at the top of the structure, in vases of empty terracotta and hearthstone. Inside, the modifications in comparison to the prospects of the imperial era are essentially due to the sacred furniture of the church and to the presence of funerary monuments of Baldassarre Peruzzi, Taddeo Zuccari, Raffaello Sanzio and the royals of Italy.

This is the Mother church of the Society of Jesus, commonly known as the Jesuits, the prestigious religious order recognized in 1540 by the Farnese Pope, Paul III. Great hopes were placed on this order for the Counter Reformation in all of Europe. The façade of the church, consecrated in 1584, is the work of Giacomo della Porta.
It signals an important architectonic revolution: although he used the columns, pilasters and arches from classical architecture, he reworked them and the result was something entirely new. There is no monotony or repetition in the 2 orders of the façade, linked in an innovative way in 2 lateral scrolls.
Vignola's work commissioned for the interior marked a basic turning point in the way space inside a church was conceived, while foreseeing the arrangements that would later be sanctioned by the Council of Trent. The Renaissance arrangement was no longer acceptable, so a return was made to the medieval concept of a church: where the nave is lengthened in order to exalt the importance of the altar; where there is an absence of columns and pilasters so that a large open space is created, freeing it from obstacles and allowing the congregation to see the altar.
The faithful were thus encouraged to participate in the sacraments- a situation fundamental to the Jesuits. The rigor and the minimalism of the church were altered during the 17th century with decorations and pictures. The vault was covered in frescoes by Baciccia, as Giovan Battista Gaulli was later called. He created a masterpiece of perspective illusion - the scene overflows out of the cornice, going into the areas of stucco work.
Light is the unifying element and it allows reality to meet simulation in an alternating effect that presents astonishing visual effects. The Chapel of St. Ignatius, in the left hand transept, is the work of Andrea Pozzo and possesses the richest baroque altar in Rome. Although the Saint's statue originally was solid silver, it had to be melted down to pay taxes imposed by Napoleon, so today it is in silver-plated plaster.

The church of the Annunziata became insufficient for over two thousand students of many nations who were attending the College at the beginning of the XVII century.
Gregory XV was an old pupil of the school and was strongly attached to it. He had also canonized Ignatius in 1622. He suggested to his nephew, Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi, that a temple should be erected to the founder of the Company of Jesus, at the College itself.
The young cardinal accepted the idea, asked several architets to draw plans, and finally chose that of Father Orazio Grassi, Professor of mathematics at the College itself (1583 - 1654).
The foundation - stone was laid only in 1626 on the 2nd of August, four years later, a delay which was caused by the fact that a section of the buildings belonging to the Roman College had to be dismantled.
The church was opened for public workship only in 1650, the Holy Year, but the final solemn consecration of the holy edifice was celebrated only in 1722 by Cardinal Zondadari.
The church was erected on the spot where the Temple of Isis had stood in Imperial Rome; this was the hearth of the egyptian district in the city. The present façade stands where the Acqua Vergine once flowed down in a cascade; it still runs beneath the ground.
The church's entrance now faces on to Piazza S. Ignazio; the charming rococò piazzetta was planned by the architect Filippo Raguzzini (1680 - 1771).

Palazzo Montecitorio is built on a small rise that was created by a dump of old materials during the Middle Ages. As a result of feuds among the nobles, this whole district fell into the power of the Colonna family and was utilized for ornamental and vegetable gardens up to 1650 when the Ludovisi family commissioned Bernini to build them a residence.
Bernini, the quintessential Roman baroque architect, succeeded in using the lie of the land to determine both its structure and its decoration. The building's façade with its gentle curve follows the slopes of this man-made hill and the rough-hewn stone elements, from which broken branches and leaves are protruding, make the building appear to be constructed within the very rock itself.
Engaging in a challenge with nature, Bernini tried to exploit the natural elements and bend them to his will, even though he knew nature could never be dominated.
The work was interrupted because the Ludovisi family had financial difficulties; it was taken up again and finished 30 years afterwards by Pope Innocent XII who intended to use the building for the Pontifical Curia, the highest administrative body of justice. The triple-doored entrance is surmounted by a wall belfry equipped with three bells, the largest of which was used to signal school and office hours.
Palazzo Montecitorio was acquired by the Italian State and became the Chamber of Deputies. It was enlarged in 1919 with the addition of a new building on the Piazza del Parlamento side.
The obelisk comes from the Emperor Augustus's clock and was brought here at the end of the 16th century by Pope Sixtus V.

Constructed in the first decade of the 17th century for Cardinal Camillo Borghese, this building came to be called the "Borghese Harpsichord" on account of its unusual shape, similar to the antique musical instrument. The façade which looks onto the Lungotevere, the embankment of the Tiber River, is called the keyboard because of the two rows of loggias, one upon the other.
At the time of construction this part of the river was a busy port, alive with activity.
The Palazzo Borghese, the tallest and most imposing building of its time, was a sure sign of the family's newly acquired economic power. Originally from Siena, their power was ensured when Camillo Borghese became Pope, taking the name Paul V.
A rigorous and uncompromising man, as pope he dispensed enormous privileges to his family members, in particular to his favorite nephew, Cardinal Scipione.
The modest origins of the family can be understood from their surname, Borghese, but their ascent in Rome was rapid and they became one of the city's most powerful families.

This church owes its name to the temple dedicated to Minerva on which, according to tradition, it was built. Although it was probably first built in the 8th century, it did not become a Dominican church until the middle of the 13th century. It was the Dominicans who set about to reconstruct the church, a process that lasted over a century.
Two architect friars, Sisto and Ristoro, who were also responsible for Santa Maria Novella in Florence, were the builders of this church in Rome. The Spinster's Festival used to be held here on March 25th every year. The church would be decked out with tapestries, festooned with fruit and vegetables and special lights.
The papal court would be present and, at the end of the ceremonies, those spinsters who were "honest and with a good name" would receive a money grant. The amount depended on the funds held by the arch confraternity. When the papal properties were confiscated by the Italian state in 1870, this ceremony was abandoned.
There are a number of stone plaques affixed to the walls which record the water level reached during the various floods that, over the centuries, covered the Campus Martius, the lowest part of Rome. You'll find a number of Masterpieces inside the church. Do not miss seeing Michelangelo's Risen Christ, the Carafa Chapel in the right hand transept with Fra Lippo Lippi's frescoes, and the tomb of Fra Angelico, one of the great 15th century artists..

The name of this piazza comes from Marcus Aurelius's column still standing where it was erected in ancient Rome and reminding us of the topographical changes made in the city over the centuries. In Imperial times, there used to be a temple dedicated to the Emperor on part of what is now the piazza.
Colonnades bounded two sides, with houses and shops on the Via del Corso side. The column was erected in 180 AD in the center of the temple's piazza.
The reliefs narrate the imperial campaigns of the era of Marcus Aurelius and, for the first time, they were the works of actual Roman artists. Even if they are less refined than those on Trajan's column, they are nevertheless more expressive.
In the Middle Ages, the piazza was at the intersection of the two most important pilgrim itineraries: one went from Piazza del Popolo to the Campidoglio and then on to San Giovanni in Laterano; the other left from Via Salaria towards Porte Sant'Angelo and on to St. Peter's.
After the Renaissance when restoration work was done on the column, the piazza began to take on its present appearance. The small medieval dwellings gave way to palaces for noble families. Bars and cafés became important meeting places for citizens and, especially, intellectuals involved in city politics.