The Pantheon

The Pantheon

<p style="text-align: center;">Located on Mount St. Genevieve in the 5th district, the Pantheon in Paris is an important architectural work of the second half of the eighteenth century, initiated by Louis XV and originally planned as a church dedicated to St. Genevieve, patron saint of Paris.</p> <p style="text-align: center;">When the building was completed around 1790, under the impulse of the French Revolution, its purpose changed and the church became a republican mausoleum where the ashes of distinguished French citizens would remain.</p> <p style="text-align: center;">The first such citizen was Mirabeau (subsenquently removed). The inscription above the entrance of the building, largely inspired by the Pantheon in Rome, reads &quot;To great men the grateful homeland&quot;.Throughout the nineteenth century and with the political changes, the building was alternatively a church dedicated to Sainte Genevi&egrave;ve, and a secular temple, necropolis of personalities such as Voltaire, Rousseau, Bougainville, Victor Hugo et Pierre and Marie Curie.</p> <p style="text-align: center;">Information at&nbsp;<a>www.paris-pantheon.fr</a></p> <p style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><em>10 mins walk from the hotel</em></p>