Paris
Paris
Ile-de-France France
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Cemetery notes and/or description:
The Panthéon was originally commissioned by Louis XV as a church to replace a ruined abbey dedicated to Saint Geneviève, the patron saint of Paris. Begun in 1756, it was not completed until 1790, by which time the Revolution had broken out and many churches had been taken over for secular uses by the National Assembly. It was decided that, as the building bore some resemblance to the Pantheon in Rome, it would become a pantheon for France's revolutionary and other national heroes. Later, after the restoration of the monarchy, it twice became a church after reverting to use as a national mausoleum, its present role. Some of those buried here are the philosophers Voltaire and Rousseau, writers Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas (père), and Émile Zola; politicians Léon Gambetta, Jean Jaurès, and Paul Painlevé; scientists Pierre and Marie Curie, and WWII resistance hero Jean Moulin. |
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