The Pantheon, Paris
Its dome dominated the Latin Quarter and gives its name to the similarly solemn square, at the center of which it stands. This colossal civic temple worthily upholds the motto inscribed on its pediment that honours the nations great men. An irony of history, this monuments dedicated to Republican liturgies was commissioned by Louis XV in 1744 to honour Sainte-Genevieve.
But with the Revolution underway, the scarcely finished basilica was transformed into a civic temple in 1791 and consecrated as the national Pantheon in 1885, at the funeral of Victor Hugo. A synthesis of neoclassical and Gothic-style architecture, it also houses the tombs of Pierre and Marie Curie, Alexandre Dumas, Jean Jaures, Andre Malraux, Jean Moulin, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Voltaire.
