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Old 10-08-2007, 03:21 PM   #6 (permalink)
catfather
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 2
Default Re: Hole in Pantheon dome

I am sorry I haven't gotten back sooner, since posing the question. I have learned a little more about the "hole" in the Parthenon, and have seen a picture. It is shown on one of the 30-minute PBS travelogue documentaries by Rick Steves -- in the camera shot, the hole appears to be about 6-10 feet off the floor, where the dome wall still is near-vertical. It's low enough that someone standing on a ladder could have cut it. The hole is rectangular, and I esitmate it to be about a foot high and between 1.5 feet and 2 feet wide. In the camera shot, there was nothing to compare the height or size of the hole; hence, the vague estimates. In his narration, Steves says Brunelleschi "may" have been the one to cut the hole, to learn how the dome was constructed in preparation for his work on the Duomo.
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