Overlooking the city from its Left Bank perch, the Panthéon's stately neoclassical dome stands out as one of the most recognizable icons in the Parisian skyline. Originally a church and now a mausoleum, it has served since 1791 as the resting place of some of France’s greatest thinkers, including Voltaire, Rousseau, Braille and Hugo. An architectural masterpiece, the interior is impressively vast (if slightly soulless) and certainly worth a wander. The dome is closed for renovations through 2015 (other structural work will continue through 2022).
Louis XV originally commissioned the Panthéon around 1750 as an abbey dedicated to Sainte Geneviève in thanksgiving for his recovery from an illness. Due to financial and structural problems, it wasn’t completed until 1789 – not a good year for church openings in Paris. It reverted to religious duties twice more after the Revolution but has played a secular role ever since 1885. The first woman to be interred in the Panthéon based on achievement was two-time Nobel Prize winner Marie Curie (1867–1934), reburied here, along with her husband, Pierre, in 1995. A copy of Foucault's pendulum, originally hung from the dome in 1851 to demonstrate the rotation of the earth, will return to its display following renovations.
