Rotonda

The Rotonda stands as a massive, circular brick cylinder with walls over six meters thick, topped by a dome that has survived earthquakes for seventeen hundred years. Built by the Roman Caesar Galerius, it was intended as his mausoleum, though he was eventually buried elsewhere. In the following centuries, it served as a Christian church, then a mosque when the minaret was added, and finally a monument. Sunlight pours through the high windows, illuminating the remnants of delicate, golden early Christian mosaics.