The Panthéon

The Panthéon (French: [pɑ̃.te.ɔ̃]; Latin: pantheon, from Greek πάνθειον (ἱερόν) ‘(temple) to all the gods’)[1] is a building in the Latin Quarter in Paris, France. It originally functioned as a church dedicated to Paris patron saint Genevieve to house the reliquary châsse containing her relics, but secularized during the French Revolution and designated as a mausoleum containing the remains of distinguished French citizens. It is an early example of neo-classicism, with a façade modelled on the Pantheon in Rome, surmounted by a dome that owes some of its character to Bramante‘s Tempietto. Located in the 5th arrondissement on the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève, the Panthéon looks out over all of Paris. Designer Jacques-Germain Soufflot had the intention of combining the lightness and brightness of the Gothic cathedral with classical principles, but its role as a mausoleum required the great Gothic windows to be blocked.

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Author: Mark