10 photos of the Pantheon

In 1744, King Louis XV expressed his desire to dedicate a prestigious building to Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris. The architect Soufflot was commissioned to undertake this project. In 1791, the monument was turned into the national Pantheon: the burial of Victor Hugo in 1885 enshrined this secular use of the building. The crypt holds the graves of the great men and women of the nation, including Voltaire, Emile Zola, Jean Moulin and Marie Curie. The full tour takes in the neo-classical architecture, painted and sculpted decorations from the 19th century and a reconstitution of Foucault’s 1851 pendulum experiment.