The Pantheon lie the remains of important personalities from different fields: Voltaire, Braille, Victor Hugo … Only two are women: Marie Curie and Sophie Berthelot.

On the hill of Sainte-Genevieve, in the Quartier Latin, Latin Quarter, surrounded by schools and universities, stands the imposing figure of one of the most important monuments of Paris: The Pantheon.

During most of the nineteenth century, when yet there was neither the Eiffel Tower or the Sacré Coeur and even less the Montparnasse Tower, the Pantheon provided the best overview of the city and the region. Is itself a masterpiece of architecture as a whole, as well as an emblem of the French history of the last 250 years. The Pantheon is now primarily a necropolis where the history of republican France is confused with the world of scientists, writers, clerics and politicians.Structurally, the building is 110 meters long and 84 meters wide. The facade is decorated by a colonnade of Corinthian columns topped by a triangular pediment by D’Angers, representing an allegory of the glory of great men, which recognizes Voltaire, Rousseau and Napoleon, among others. An imposing dome 83 meters high completes the package.

The interior of the nave is decorated with carvings and paintings which mixes elements of religion and Republicans. In the center of the Foucault pendulum swings, scientific experiment carried out by Léon Foucault in 1851. This area of ​​47 kg suspended from a wire 67 meters test the rotation of the earth on its axis.
Stairs leading to the crypt where the remains of 73 individuals. Among the most recognized and prominent can cite Mirabeau, Voltaire, Paul Marat, Emile Zola, Pierre and Marie Curie, Soufflot (the first architect), Louis Braille, Jean Moulin, Victor Hugo, and the last to enter, Alexander Dumas in 2002. Notably, only two women were buried in the Pantheon: Marie Curie and Sophie Berthelot, chemist Marcelin Berthelot’s wife, whose remains are also here.

The origins of the Pantheon date back to 1764. Louis XV, gravely ill, had promised to build a church in honor of Santa Genoveva if he could heal. That was how, in the place of the old abbey of St. Genevieve, then in ruins, he laid the first stone in the middle of a spectacular ceremony which included a gigantic scale paintings depicting the monument was built.

The idea driving the project and was led by Jacques-Germain Soufflot, who died in 1780 without seeing his work completed. They were partners and Brébion Rondelet whom completed in 1790.
The events of the Revolution brought a shift in the fate of the monument. By decree, the April 4, 1791 became the church of St. Genevieve in the Pantheon, so that “the temple of religion is the temple of the country, the tomb of a great man is the altar of freedom “. Mirabeau was the first of these great men, followed by Voltaire, whose ashes were taken to the Pantheon in 1791 with a grand ceremony.

Between 1791 and 1793, its appearance was transformed in importance given the current look and respected the ideals of the time, such as replacing the religious carvings of works that highlighted the patriotic virtues. Also enrolled in the front “Aux grands hommes, la patrie reconnaissante” (A great men the grateful homeland “).

In the years that followed startled the Revolution, the various political changes led to the remains of different characters were buried in the Pantheon for their virtues and expelled afterwards, considered traitors and unworthy of being there. Was established by decree in 1795 that should pass within ten years before burying a body in the Pantheon.
In 1806, Napoleon returned to the Pantheon its religious character, keeping both. Until the fall of Napoleon in 1815, the crypt of the Pantheon received forty and staff, including scientists, military and other dignitaries.
The 1830 revolution transformed back to the Pantheon monument, called “Temple of Glory”, to return back to his church in 1851 character Napoleon III. In 1873 the decision to decorate the Pantheon with monarchical and religious figures in the history of France.

Victor Hugo’s death in 1885 finally sealed the fate of the Republican pantheon. At that time, a million people joined the poet to his final resting place.
Currently, the decree authorizing the transfer of a body to the Pantheon to be signed by the head of state at the request of a committee of eminent persons or descendants of characters that have helped to defend republican values ​​or have participated to the progress of humanity.