Stop 6
The Pediment
The Stolen Bronze
Audio Guide
The triangular pediment above the portico is pocked with holes where bronze decorations once gleamed. The original Pantheon was covered in colored marble, polished granite, and bronze — nothing like the grey stone you see today. Pope Urban VIII (Barberini) ordered the bronze melted in the 1620s for cannons and the St. Peter's baldachin.
The saying 'What the barbarians didn't do, the Barberini did' entered the permanent vocabulary of European criticism. It established the principle that destroying heritage for political or financial gain is a form of vandalism worse than conquest — a concept that underlies modern heritage protection law worldwide.
The bronze used to cast Gian Lorenzo Bernini's famous baldachin canopy over the altar of St. Peter's Basilica — one of the great works of Baroque art — came largely from the Pantheon's portico ceiling. Bernini himself reportedly felt conflicted about this, though he proceeded with the commission.
“Quod non fecerunt barbari, fecerunt Barberini. (What the barbarians didn't do, the Barberini did.)”
— Roman popular saying, 1620s
🤔 Reflect
The barbarians who sacked Rome left the Pantheon untouched. A Pope's family melted its decorations for political purposes. What is the difference between destruction in war and destruction in peacetime? Does it matter who destroys cultural heritage, or only that it's destroyed?