Print

ITALY

September/October 2020

ATW ItalyITALY: A sinkhole that opened up near the Pantheon in Rome’s Piazza della Rotonda exposed a section of Roman paving dating back 2,000 years. Seven travertine stone slabs were revealed lying 8 feet below the modern cobblestone street surface. The slabs were part of the original Pantheon building project, carried out between 27 and 25 B.C. by the emperor Augustus’ right-hand man Marcus Agrippa. Only the facade of Agrippa’s temple remains visible today, as the structure was later rebuilt by the emperor Hadrian, who commissioned its famous dome.