This past weekend, I visited the most fantastic place in Paris. I am not sure the best way to describe the experience to you but here it goes. Imagine you were in a room of the most famous people in the world (whether that is James Franklin, Beyonce, Will Ferrel, Melissa McCarthy, or all four of them). That is the feeling that I had except the famous people that I was surrounded by were all in a crypt.

For those of you who did not read my first blog post, I study French, Spanish, and Comparative Literature. Hopefully that helps you understand the feeling that I had when I was in the crypt in the Pantheon and I saw the tombs of Emile Zola, Rosseau, Voltaire, and Victor Hugo (just some of the many examples).

What is the Pantheon?

The Pantheon is a building that was originally built as a church in the Latin Quarter of Paris. The church, originally dedicated to Saint Genevieve, housed the relics of Saint Genevieve. During the French Revolution, the church was turned into a secular mausoleum containing the bodies of celebrated French citizens.

 

Louis XV decided to renovate the remains of the Abbey of Saint Genevieve after making a promise that he would put a church worthy of the name Saint Genevieve in its place if he recovered from an illness. Louis XV pulled through and he constructed the church. Years later, the Revolutionaries decided to secularize the church because it was a symbol of the monarchy and the Ancient Regime (it did not only happen to this church but many other churches and things built by the monarchy or the Catholic Church due to its association with the monarchy).

The building is neoclassical and looks like a mixture between a cathedral in the form of a Latin cross and a Greek temple. Unfortunately, the dome is currently under renovation so you are not able to see the dome or the pendulum that is usually inside.

Why I got so excited!

So, instead of recounting everything that I found awesome in the Pantheon, I am going to just add pictures and you can just assume my excitement from that.

 

Tomb of Voltaire

 

Memoir of Antoine de Saint Exupery (author of Le Petit prince (The Little Prince)

 

 

 

 

Location: Montagne Saint Genevieve Paris France