And They Were Always in the Temple: The Pilgrims’ Experience at S. Maria Rotonda Hanneke VAN ASPEREN Although not one of Rome’s earliest Christian The Pantheon as a Church churches, the Pantheon is one of Rome’s oldest and most prominent buildings. Built by Hadrian In 609, 610, or perhaps 613, Pope Boniface IV as a templum,1 it stood abandoned for some time (608-15) consecrated the classical building that is 3 in the Early Middle Ages. It started to function as still known today as the Pantheon. According a church only in the early decades of the seventh to the Liber pontificalis, the Pantheon became ‘the century when it was dedicated to the Virgin and Church of the Blessed Mary, always a Virgin, 4 all martyrs, and it has been a place of Christian and All Martyrs’. Circular churches were not at worship ever since. The building underwent all unusual at the time as S. Stefano Rotondo, many interventions during the Middle Ages and built for Pope Simplicius (468-83), clearly dem- it has been considered something of a miracle onstrates. The dedication to all martyrs seems that the Roman building has survived at all. Its to have followed on from the tradition of the transformation into a church in the seventh cen- Pantheon being a temple to all the gods, but the tury was surely crucial, but much remains un- Virgin became its most important titular. The clear about how the pagan, and therefore taint- pope might have been inspired by a tradition, ed, history of the edifice was accommodated already firmly established in the east, of associ- 5 once the function of Christian church was im- ating round churches with the Virgin. Retro- posed upon it. The Pantheon’s enormous round spectively, a story emerged that the Pantheon open space with its grand cupola was not well had previously been a temple to the mother- 6 suited to its new function. The roof has a large goddess Cybele. She anticipated the dedication hole in the middle to let the light in, but also of the building to the Virgin just as all gods had allows in any precipitation and, in winter, the prefigured all martyrs. The inclusion of Cybele cold. Still, the building attracted much attention in the proto-history of the church, especially from the devout, during the High and Late Mid- her privileged position among the other gods, dle Ages. The city of Rome where the Pantheon was supposedly invented to underscore the posi- is situ ated was well endowed with antique and tion of the Virgin at the top of the hierarchy of believed-to-be antique buildings and statues that saints. Since the Virgin was the most important embodied the medieval ideal of romanitas. For figure, the roots of the Pantheon’s dedication to pilgrims however, the building must have had her had to be present from the start too. an attraction that exceeded its connection with The building’s most prominent features, the the Roman past. The subject of this contribution circular floor plan, the cupola and the round is not the physical appearance or liturgical use hole, became its identifying marks. Although of the Pantheon, which have been the primary the church was officially known as Mary among focus of Sible de Blaauw’s careful attention.2 In- the Martyrs from the seventh century onwards, stead, I will turn my attention to the Christian its popular name became S. Maria Rotonda, or interpretations of its classical architecture dur- ‘the Round Church of St Mary’. Serving as a ing the heyday of medieval pilgrimage to Rome. conduit between east and west, S. Maria Roton- Although ideas and associations are intangible, da became a model in the West for circular, and it is possible to catch a glimpse of the medieval centralized, churches dedicated to Mary, such perspectives on the Pantheon from surviving as the chapels at Centula, Würzburg, Altötting, 7 images, such as pilgrimage souvenirs. and Ludwigstadt. Significantly, the additional title of S. Maria Rotonda already appears in 85 Hanneke van Asperen Fig. 1. Rome, S. Maria Rotonda (Pantheon), interior, looking towards the main apse and upwards. Photo in the public domain. eighth-century pilgrims’ itineraries,8 and from tion and was most likely intended to reinforce the twelfth century, the name of S. Maria Ro- the special relationship of the new church with tonda also appears in official documents.9 S. Ma- the Virgin. The icon of the Virgin bore witness ria Rotonda, and not S. Maria ad Martyres, is to the established hierarchy, not the other way the name written on twelfth- and thirteenth- around. Nor did the icon become the main fo- century pilgrims’ souvenirs (Figs 2 and 3). In cus of the pilgrimage cult later, or at least this agreement with its popular name, these souve- does not emerge from the sources. The icon is nir badges depict the Virgin and Child in the hardly mentioned in the Indulgentiae ecclesiarum round church, without additional figures, with- urbis Romae [‘The Indulgences of the churches out martyrs or saints. of the city of Rome’].11 In his description of Besides being a church and a model for sanc- Rome, Nikolaus Muffel c. ( 1410-69) mentions tuaries elsewhere, the former Pantheon became an apparition of the Virgin to a large group of a site of pilgrimage which attracted pilgrims martyrs who were inside the church.12 They had from far and wide. Much importance has been refused to honour the pagan gods and turned to attributed to a Byzantine icon of the Virgin and Mary who came to console them. Muffel does Child in the pilgrimage cult of S. Maria Ro- not mention the icon, only the apparition of tonda, but its significance must not be overes- the Virgin, on a site where an altar was erect- timated.10 First of all, the dedication of the for- ed afterwards to commemorate the miraculous mer pagan temple to the Virgin was probably event. In another story in the Liber pontificalis, not instigated by the icon. On the contrary, the from the time of Pope Stephanus III (768-72), a icon’s being placed inside the S. Maria Rotonda Lombard priest called Waldipert turned to the seems to have followed shortly after the dedica- church for asylum ‘while Waldipert carried his 86 And They Were Always in the Temple image [imaginem ipsius] of the mother of God Likewise, the miraculous story of the trans- to this place’.13 The narrative seems to indicate formation of the pagan building into a church that the priest brought the image with him, al- focuses on the architecture. When the pope though it is impossible to be sure on the basis of consecrated the former mausoleum and temple, this short passage. Pilgrims hardly mention the the devil had supposedly appeared and tried to image in their accounts. In comparison, icons of demolish the building to stop its transformation. the Virgin in other churches of Rome are de- He failed, and in total frustration he took the scribed elaborately, even if they play a subsidiary metal knob from the top of the building and role among the relics, for example in St Peter’s threw it into the river Tiber. With the removal or in S. Maria Maggiore.14 of the knob and the subsequent creation of the No saint had been martyred on the site of the oculus, light could enter the building, symboli- rotunda, no divine vision had preceded its con- cally creating a direct link with heaven. The struction and pilgrims’ accounts and the Indul- miracle marked the moment when God entered gentiae evoke an image of a church with few rel- the building. To further underscore God’s be- ics. Muffel does mention a large number of relics nevolence towards, or direct interference in, at the Pantheon at the time of the consecration, the consecration, the knob was miraculously but this is a later construction without historic retrieved and brought to St Peter’s for visitors to basis.15 Sources dating back to the fifteenth cen- marvel upon. Books with the Indulgentiae men- tury mention the relics of Sts Rasius and An- tion the object in the atrium of St Peter’s.20 As astasius, but these are not mentioned in older a tangible remnant of the pagan proto-history descriptions.16 They might have been installed of S. Maria Rotonda, it showed that the con- later to emphasize the dedication to Mary and secration had met with divine approval and the the martyrs and they were presumably not the building, although pagan at first, had always focus of the pilgrimage cult. Although the link been destined to become a place of Christian of the former pagan temple with the Virgin was worship.21 strong from the beginning and remained firm, In line with the pilgrims’ accounts, the no concrete evidence emerges of a cult focusing badges that pilgrims took home also depicted on relics or on the icon. a circular and domed church with an oculus. A chronology of badges is hard to define be- Fascination with Architecture cause they remained the same over a long period of time and it is often not possible to date them Different sources indicate that pilgrims were on the basis of archaeological evidence. Never- drawn primarily to the building and, after that, theless, those few badges that might be dated to the icon or the relics. Pilgrims’ accounts fo- indicate that the souvenir production for the cus on the architectural elements, primarily S. Maria Rotonda had been established in the the round shape, the spacious interior and the early fourteenth century and might go back to oculus.