Le Panthéon

Panthéon, Le. Originally built to the grandiose neoclassical design of Soufflot as the Église Sainte-Geneviève, this Paris church was taken over almost immediately (1791) by the Assemblée Constituante as a national burial place for notable Frenchmen. It carries the inscription ‘Aux grands hommes la Patrie reconnaissante’. Mirabeau was the first person to be buried there; shortly afterwards the remains of Voltaire and Rousseau were transferred there.