The Roman Pantheon is the best preserved building of ancient Rome. Completed between A.D. 118 and 125, the Pantheon is a Roman temple originally dedicated to Roman Commander Marcus Agrippa and was used for worship of all the gods of pagan Rome. The Pantheon exists today in its well-preserved state because the Byzantine emperor Phocas gave it to Pope Boniface the VIII in A.D 608 and it has been used as a Christian church ever since. Nevertheless, nearly all of the bronze that once adorned the Pantheon was stripped from the building and used for the construction of St. Peter's Basilica. The Italian kings Vittorio Emanuele II and Umberto I as well as the famous Renaissance painter Raphael and his fiancée are buried in the Pantheon.
Defined as a public space in the last years of the 15th century when the city market was transferred to it from the Campidoglio, the Piazza Navona was transformed into a highly significant example of Baroque Roman architecture and art during the pontificate of Innocent X, who reigned from 1644 until 1655 and whose family palace, the Palazzo Pamphili, faced the piazza. The palace now houses the Brazilian Embassy in Italy.
Fontana del Moro (Moor Fountain) is a fountain located at the southern end of the Piazza Navona in Rome, Italy. It represents a Moor standing in a conch shell, wrestling with a dolphin, surrounded by four Tritons. The fountain was originally designed by Giacomo della Porta in 1575 with the dolphin and four Tritons. In 1653, the statue of the Moor, by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, was added. In 1874, during a restoration of the fountain, the original statues were moved to the Galleria Borghese and replaced with copies.
