The Panthéon is a building in the Latin Quarter in Paris, France. It was originally built as a church dedicated to Ste Genevieve, but after many vicissitudes now combines liturgical functions with its role as a famous burial place. It is an early example of Neoclassicism, with a façade modelled on the Pantheon in Rome, surmounted by a small dome that owes some of its character to Bramante's "Tempietto." Located in the Ve arrondissement on the top of Montagne Sainte-Geneviève, the Panthéon looks out over all of Paris.
History
King Louis XV vowed in 1744 that if he recovered from an illness he would replace the ruined church of Sainte-Geneviève (see entry Genevieve) with an edifice worthy of the patron saint of Paris. The Marquis of Marigny was entrusted with the fulfillment of the vow after the king regained his health. Marigny's protégé Jacques-Germain Soufflot (1713-1780) was charged with the plans, and the construction of the Panthéon began.
Missing imageParis_Pantheon_at_night_DSC09526.jpg The area west of the Panthéon is quite busy at night.
The overall design was that of a Greek cross with a massive portico of Corinthian columns. Its ambitious lines called for a vast building 110 metres long by 84 metres wide, and 83 metres high. No less vast was its crypt.
The foundations were laid in 1758, but due to financial difficulties, it was only completed after Soufflot's death by his pupil, Jean-Baptiste Rondelet, in 1789. As it was completed at the start of the French Revolution, the new Revolutionary government ordered it to be changed from a church to a mausoleum for the interment of great Frenchmen.
Twice since then it has reverted to being a church, only to become again a temple to the great men of France.
In 1851 physicist Léon Foucault demonstrated the rotation of the Earth by his experiment conducted in the Panthéon, by constructing a 67 metre Foucault pendulum beneath the central dome. The original iron sphere from the pendulum was returned to the Panthéon in 1995 from the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers.
Missing imageFoucaultspendulum.250px.jpg Foucault Pendulum in the Panthéon
Burial place
The inscription above the entrance reads AUX GRANDS HOMMES LA PATRIE RECONNAISSANTE ("For great men the grateful Nation").
Among those buried in its necropolis are Voltaire, Rousseau, Marat, Victor Hugo, Émile Zola, Jean Moulin, Marie Curie, René Descartes, Louis Braille and Soufflot, its architect.
On November 30, 2002, in an elaborate but solemn procession, six Republican Guards carried the coffin of Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870), the author of The Three Musketeers, to the Panthéon. Draped in a blue-velvet cloth inscribed with the Musketeers' motto: "Un pour tous, tous pour un" ("One for all, all for one,") the remains had been transported from their original internment site in the Cimetière de Villers-Cotterêts in Aisne, France. In his speech, President Jacques Chirac stated that an injustice was being corrected with the proper honoring of one of France's greatest authors.
Full list of buried people
Date of burial
in the Panthéon
| Name
| Notes
|
| 1791
| Honoré Mirabeau
| Removed in 1794
|
| 1791
| Voltaire
|
|
| 1792
| Nicolas-Joseph Beaurepaire
| Disappeared
|
| 1793
| Louis Michel Le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau
| Assassinated deputy, removed from the Panthéon
|
| 1793
| Augustin-Marie Picot, marquis de Dampierre
| Disappeared
|
| 1794
| Jean-Paul Marat
| Removed from the Panthéon
|
| 1794
| Jean-Jacques Rousseau
|
|
| 1806
| Claude-Louis Petiet
|
|
| 1806
| François Denis Tronchet
|
|
| 1807
| Jean-Étienne-Marie Portalis
|
|
| 1807
| Louis-Pierre-Pantaléon Resnier
|
|
| 1807
| Louis-Joseph-Charles-Amable d'Albert, duc de Luynes
| Removed from the Panthéon
|
| 1807
| Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Bévière
|
|
| 1808
| Francois Barthélemy, comte Béguinot
|
|
| 1808
| Pierre Jean George Cabanis
|
|
| 1808
| Gabriel-Louis, marquis de Caulaincourt
|
|
| 1808
| Jean-Frédéric, comte de Perrégaux
|
|
| 1808
| Antoine-César de Choiseul, duc de Praslin
|
|
| 1808
| Jean-Pierre-Firmin, comte Malher
| Urn with his heart
|
| 1809
| Jean Baptiste Papin, comte de Saint-Christau
|
|
| 1809
| Joseph-Marie, comte Vien
|
|
| 1809
| Pierre Garnier, comte de Laboissière
|
|
| 1809
| Jean Pierre, comte Sers
| Urn with his heart
|
| 1809
| Jérôme-Louis-François-Joseph, comte de Durazzo
| Urn with his heart
|
| 1809
| Justin-Bonaventure, comte Morard de Galles
| Urn with his heart
|
| 1809
| Emmanuel Crétet, comte de Champnol
|
|
| 1810
| Giovanni Baptista, cardinal Caprara
|
|
| 1810
| Louis-Joseph-Vincent-Leblon, comte de Saint-Hilaire
|
|
| 1810
| Jean-Baptiste, comte Treilhard
|
|
| 1810
| Jean Lannes, duc de Montebello
|
|
| 1810
| Charles-Pierre-Claret, comte de Fleurieu de La Tourette
|
|
| 1811
| Louis Antoine de Bougainville
|
|
| 1811
| Charles, cardinal Erskine of Kellie
|
|
| 1811
| Alexandre-Antoine Hureau, baron de Sénarmont
| Urn with his heart
|
| 1811
| Ippolito Antonio, cardinal Vicenti Mareri
|
|
| 1811
| Nicolas-Marie, comte de Songis des Courbons
|
|
| 1811
| Michel, comte Ordener
|
|
| 1812
| Jean-Marie-François Lepaige, comte Dorsenne
|
|
| 1812
| Jean Guillaume De Winter, comte de Huessen
|
|
| 1813
| Hyacinthe-Hugues-Timoléon de Cossé, comte de Brissac
|
|
| 1813
| Jean-Ignace Jacqueminot, comte de Ham
|
|
| 1813
| Joseph Louis, comte Lagrange
|
|
| 1813
| Jean, comte Rousseau
|
|
| 1813
| François-Marie-Joseph-Justin, comte de Viry
|
|
| 1814
| Jean-Nicolas, comte Démeunier
|
|
| 1814
| Jean-Louis-Ebenezer, comte Reynier
|
|
| 1814
| Claude-Ambroise Régnier, duc de Massa di Carrara
|
|
| 1815
| Antoine-Jean-Marie, comte Thévenard
|
|
| 1815
| Claude-Juste-Alexandre, comte Legrand
|
|
| 1829
| Jacques-Germain Soufflot
|
|
| 1885
| Victor Hugo
|
|
| 1889
| Lazare Carnot
| Buried at the time of the centennial celebration of the French Revolution
|
| 1889
| Théophile-Malo Corret de la Tour d'Auvergne
| Buried at the time of the centennial celebration of the French Revolution
|
| 1889
| Jean-Baptiste Baudin
| Buried at the time of the centennial celebration of the French Revolution
|
| 1889
| François Séverin Marceau-Desgraviers
| Buried at the time of the centennial celebration of the French Revolution – Only a part of his body is buried there
|
| 1894
| Marie François Sadi Carnot
| Buried immediately after his assassination
|
| 1907
| Marcellin Berthelot
| Mme Sophie Berthelot is buried with her husband
|
| 1908
| Émile Zola
|
|
| 1920
| Léon Gambetta
| Urn with his heart
|
| 1924
| Jean Jaurès
|
|
| 1933
| Paul Painlevé
|
|
| 1948
| Paul Langevin
|
|
| 1948
| Jean Perrin
| Buried the same day as Paul Langevin
|
| 1949
| Félix Éboué
| First "colored" person in the Panthéon
|
| 1949
| Victor Schoelcher
| His father Marc, is also in the Panthéon. Victor wanted to be buried with his father
|
| 1952
| Louis Braille
|
|
| 1964
| Jean Moulin
| His body is not in the Panthéon, it was never found
|
| 1987
| René Cassin
|
|
| 1988
| Jean Monnet
| Entered the Panthéon 100 years after his birth
|
| 1989
| Abbé Baptiste-Henri Grégoire
| Buried at the time of the bicentennial celebration of the French Revolution
|
| 1989
| Gaspard Monge
| Buried at the time of the bicentennial celebration of the French Revolution
|
| 1989
| Marquis de Condorcet
| Buried at the time of the bicentennial celebration of the French Revolution
|
| 1995
| Pierre Curie
|
|
| 1995
| Maria Skłodowska-Curie
| 1st woman buried in the Panthéon for her works
|
| 1996
| André Malraux
|
|
| 2002
| Alexandre Dumas, père
|
|
See also
eo:Panthéon
fr:Panthéon de Paris
ja:パンテオン (パリ)
pl:Panteon w Paryżu
pt:Panteão de Paris
fi:Panthéon (Pariisi)
sv:Panthéon (Paris)
