Welcome:
Login/Register

Pantheon Review

Read our Paris sights reviews. Or post your own.

Panthéon

  • Address: Pl. du Pantheon, Quartier Latin, Paris | Map It
  • Phone: 01-44-32-18-00
  • www.monum.fr

Fodor's Review:

If you're thinking about monumental domed buildings, Rome has St-Peter's, London has St-Paul's, and Paris has the Pantheon, whose enormous dome dominates views of the left bank. A former church, it's now the burial place of France's most important citizens -- the list is a virtual who's who of France's cultural and political elite, including Voltaire, Zola, Dumas, Victor Hugo, Rousseau, and Marie Curie. Begun in 1764, the building was almost complete when the French Revolution erupted; meanwhile, Soufflot, the architect, had died, supposedly from worrying that the dome would collapse. He needn't have fretted so much: the dome is so perfect that Foucault used this space to test his famous pendulum. Today the vast neoclassical interior is entirely empty, except for the 19th century murals that line the walls and a model of Foucault's pendulum hanging from the center of the dome. The famous people are in the crypt, but the place looks more like an empty wine cellar than a hallowed burial ground. There is little info in English -- and none on the specific people buried here, so if you're a history buff, do your homework before you come.

  • Cost: EUR 7
  • Open: Apr.-Sept., daily 10-6:30; Oct.-Mar., daily 10-6
  • Metro: Cardinal Lemoine; RER: Luxembourg

Get Advice From Other Travelers

Visit the Travel Talk forums for help on planning your trip >>



Buy the Guidebook

  • Fodor's See It Paris, 3rd Edition
    $22.95
  • Fodor's Paris 2009
    $18.95

Get the Fodor's Newsletter

Read the current issue
For more travel ideas, tips, and deals, sign up for the Fodor's newsletter here. Browse previous issues.

Current Fodor's Newsletter

Copyright © 2008 Fodor's Travel, a division of Random House, Inc.