Let us pay: Pantheon is first church in Rome to charge tourists fee to visit

The Italian government wants to sell €2 tickets to visit the ancient church
The Italian government wants to sell €2 tickets to visit the ancient church
TONY GENTILE/REUTERS

A row has broken out in Rome over plans to charge visitors to get into Italy’s most popular monument — the Pantheon — which for well over a thousand years has served as a church.

The city’s deputy mayor has vowed to halt a government scheme to sell €2 tickets to the eight million visitors who admire the Roman temple’s enormous open-topped dome every year.

“This is a sad moment for our city,” Luca Bergamo, the deputy mayor, said.

Announcing the charge, which is due to start in May, Italy’s culture ministry said that the €16 million raised from ticket sales would be used to maintain the 43-metre diameter roof, the world’s largest unreinforced concrete dome. The present structure was built by the Emperor Hadrian