Panthéon, A sanctuary of cultural legends and revolutionary spirits
19 Place de Panthéon, 75005 Paris
4.3
Introduction
The ancestral temple was initially built in the 18th century by King Louis XV of France as part of the Sainte-Geneviève Church. After several renovations, it became a famous burial place for cultural celebrities. This building is an early representative of Neoclassical architecture, with a façade modeled after the Pantheon in Rome and a dome in the Brahmantic style. After a major illness in 1744, King Louis XV decided to build a temple for his protector, Jéna-Viève, and the Marquis of Margeny was responsible for the construction, with the designer Jacques-Germain Soufflot in charge of the specific design. The church was designed as a Latin Cross with a porch supported by Corinthian columns. The main building is 110 meters long, 84 meters wide, and 83 meters high, with a basement of roughly the same size. The completion of the church coincided with the beginning of the French Revolution, and the revolutionary regime converted the church into a mausoleum for burying "great French people." Before the building was finally used as an ancestral temple, it had been converted back to a church twice. In 1851, Léon Foucault displayed his famous Foucault pendulum here, and the iron ring from the French National School of Arts and Crafts was moved here. In 1791, the church was converted into a national ancestral temple, but it was twice restored to a religious altar in the 19th century. It wasn't until Hugo's funeral in 1885 that this building officially became a non-religious civic hall. Address 19 Place de Panthéon, 75005 Paris
Opening hours Open from Monday to Sunday, 10:00-18:00 from January 2 to March 31, 10:00-18:30 from April 1 to September 30, and 10:00-18:00 from October 1 to December 31. Admission stops 45 minutes before closing. Closed on January 1, May 1, and December 25.
Transportation Metro line 10 to Maubert-Mutualité/Cardinal-Lemoine station; Bus routes 21, 27, 38, 82, 84, 85, 89; RER B line to Luxembourg station.
Many French heroes are buried in the underground tombs
