Pantheon in Rome to Start Charging a 2 Euro Admission Fee

Italy announced that, beginning in May 2018, visitors will have to pay a 2 Euro entry fee to gain access to the Pantheon in Rome, the most visited monument in Italy, more so than the Coliseum and Pompeii. Until then, the admission to the Roman temple converted into a church will continue to be free. The Italian Ministry of Culture defends this measure by pointing to the need of improving the security and maintenance of a site visited by more than seven million people every year. A temple originally dedicated to the Roman gods, the Pantheon was built during the reign of Roman Emperor Hadrian, between 118 and 125 AD, over the ruins of an older temple commissioned by Roman general and statesman Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, destroyed by a fire in 80 AD. Until 1958, modern architecture had not been able to build an unreinforced concrete dome larger than the Pantheon's.