The Panthéon in Paris was originally commissioned by King Louis XV as a church dedicated to Saint Genevieve, the city’s patron saint. The chosen architect, Jacques-Germain Soufflot, was an early proponent of the Neoclassical style. Construction began in 1758 and lasted until 1790, so neither Louis the XV nor Soufflot lived to see the church completed.
Because the French Revolution started before the interior decoration of the church was finished, the Marquis de Vilette made this proposal: “Let us install statues of our great men and lay their ashes to rest in its underground recesses.” The idea was formally adopted in April, 1791.
After a long period of political upheaval and arguments between church and state, the use of the Panthéon as a national mausoleum stabilized and continued into the 21st century. Today there are 80 people interred in the crypts including Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the architect Soufflot, Victor Hugo, Emile Zola, Louis Braille, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Marie Curie, Pierre Curie, and Alexandre Dumas. There are 75 men and, unfortunately, only five women.
On November 30, 2021 the remains of Josephine Baker, the American-born entertainer, French Resistance agent and civil rights activist will be moved to the Pantheon. She will be the first black woman buried there.
In 1851, physicist Léon Foucault demonstrated the rotation of the Earth by hanging a 67-meter (220 foot) pendulum from the Panthéon’s central dome. A replica is usually displayed but was not there when I visited.
Photos by Charles Reeza, October 2021
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