Lisbon’s Pantheon

A dome is properly a hemispheric structure, an obsession of western architecture since ancient times, that has no clear advantage but showing that you can build it and make it prominent over a space. Properly speaking, Beijing’s temple is not a dome, but has the same function; geometry. As well as the Maltese church; if you want to see large churches and domes in a reduced space, go to Malta, even if there it was not a matter of imperial power…

A church in a small maltese village

Heaven’s temple in Beijing