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Panthon, ParisThe Panthon 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 faade 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-Genevive, the Panthon 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-Genevive (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 protg Jacques-Germain Soufflot (1713-1780) was charged with the plans, and the construction of the Panthon began. The overall design was that of a Greek cross with a massive portico of Corinthian columns. Its ambitious lines called for a vast buidling 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 Lon Foucault demonstrated the rotation of the Earth by his experiment conducted in the Panthon, by constructing a 67 metre Foucault pendulum beneath the central dome. The original iron sphere from the pendulum was returned to the Panthon in 1995 from the Conservatoire National des Arts et Mtiers. 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, Honor Mirabeau, Marat, Victor Hugo, mile Zola, Jean Moulin, Marie Curie, Ren 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 Panthon. 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 Cimetire de Villers-Cotterts 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 {| border="1" ! Date of burial
in the Panthon ! Name ! Notes |----- | 1791 | Honor Mirabeau | Removed in 1794 |----- | 1791 | Voltaire | |----- | 1792 | Nicolas-Joseph Beaurepaire | Disappeared |----- | 1793 | Louis Michel Le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau | Assassinated deputy, removed from the Panthon |----- | 1793 | Augustin-Marie Picot, marquis de Dampierre | Disappeared |----- | 1794 | Jean-Paul Marat | Removed from the Panthon |----- | 1794 | Jean-Jacques Rousseau | |----- | 1806 | Claude-Louis Petiet | |----- | 1806 | Franois Denis Tronchet | |----- | 1807 | Jean-tienne-Marie Portalis | |----- | 1807 | Louis-Pierre-Pantalon Resnier | |----- | 1807 | Louis-Joseph-Charles-Amable d'Albert, duc de Luynes | Removed from the Panthon |----- | 1807 | Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Bvire | |----- | 1808 | Francois Barthlemy, comte Bguinot | |------ | 1808 | Pierre Jean George Cabanis | |------ | 1808 | Gabriel-Louis, marquis de Caulaincourt | |----- | 1808 | Jean-Frdric, comte de Perrgaux | |----- | 1808 | Antoine-Csar 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 Laboissire | |----- | 1809 | Jean Pierre, comte Sers | Urn with his heart |----- | 1809 | Jrme-Louis-Franois-Joseph, comte de Durazzo | Urn with his heart |----- | 1809 | Justin-Bonaventure, comte Morard de Galles | Urn with his heart |----- | 1809 | Emmanuel Crtet, 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 Snarmont | 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-Franois Lepaige, comte Dorsenne | |----- | 1812 | Jean Guillaume De Winter, comte de Huessen | |----- | 1813 | Hyacinthe-Hugues-Timolon de Coss, comte de Brissac | |----- | 1813 | Jean-Ignace Jacqueminot, comte de Ham | |----- | 1813 | Joseph Louis, comte Lagrange | |----- | 1813 | Jean, comte Rousseau | |----- | 1813 | Franois-Marie-Joseph-Justin, comte de Viry | |----- | 1814 | Jean-Nicolas, comte Dmeunier | |----- | 1814 | Jean-Louis-Ebenezer, comte Reynier | |----- | 1814 | Claude-Ambroise Rgnier, duc de Massa di Carrara | |----- | 1815 | Antoine-Jean-Marie, comte Thvenard | |------ | 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 | Thophile-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 | Franois Sverin 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 Franois Sadi Carnot | Buried immediately after his assassination |----- | 1907 | Marcellin Berthelot | M Sophie Berthelot is buried with her husband |----- | 1908 | mile Zola | |----- | 1920 | Lon Gambetta | Urn with his heart |----- | 1924 | Jean Jaurs | |----- | 1933 | Paul Painlev | |----- | 1948 | Paul Langevin | |----- | 1948 | Jean Perrin | Buried the same day as Paul Langevin |----- | 1949 | Flix bou | First "colored" person in the Panthon |----- | 1949 | Victor Schoelcher | His father Marc, is also in the Panthon. Victor wanted to be buried with his father |----- | 1952 | Louis Braille | |----- | 1964 | Jean Moulin | His body is not in the Panthon, it was never found |----- | 1987 | Ren Cassin | |----- | 1988 | Jean Monnet | Entered the Panthon 100 years after his birth |----- | 1989 | Abb Baptiste-Henri Grgoire | 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 | Marie Curie |1st woman buried in the Panthon for her works |----- | 1996 | Andr Malraux | |----- | 2002 | Alexandre Dumas, pre | |