Panthéon

The Panthéon (Latin: Pantheon, from Greek Pantheon, meaning "Every god") is a building in the Latin Quarter in Paris. It was originally built as a church dedicated to St. Genevieve in the XVIIIth century, but after many changes now functions as a secular mausoleum containing the remains of distinguished French citizens. It is an early example of neoclassicism, with a façade modeled on the Pantheon in Rome, surmounted by a dome that owes some of its character to Bramante's "Tempietto". Located in the 5th arrondissement on the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève, the Panthéon looks out over all of Paris. Soufflot had the intention of combining the lightness and brightness of the gothic cathedral with classical principles, but its role as a mausoleum required the great gothic windows to be blocked. Nevertheless, it is one of the most important architectural achievements of its time and the first great neoclassical monument.

Are buried there in particular :

• Voltaire
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau
• Victor Hugo
• Émile Zola
• Léon Gambetta
• Jean Jaurès
• Victor Schoelcher
• Louis Braille
• Jean Moulin
• René Cassin
• Pierre et Marie Curie
• Alexandre Dumas

The Foucault pendulum is also associated with the history of the Paris Pantheon. When, in 1851, the physicist Léon Foucault looks for a building of big height to demonstrate the Earth rotation, the Pantheon, civil place, seems quite indicated. Since 1995, the pendulum beats again in the nave.