Necropolis for the atheist citizens of France, the Panthéon shelters the remains of luminaries such as Voltaire, Rousseau, Victor Hugo, Zola, Louis Braille, Jean Jaurès and the Resistance martyr Jean Moulin, as well as a shrine containing the heart of left-wing hero Léon-Michel Gambetta. Originally commissioned by Louis XV in 1744, the Panthéon was only completed at the Revolution.
By that time its architect, Soufflot, had died and his neoclassical edifice, based on the form of a Greek cross, was subsequently finished by one of his students 10 years after his death. In 1791, its windows were bricked up and its function changed from that of church to Temple of Fame. In 1185, it again changed to become the lay temple it remains today.
The austerity of this monument is slightly alleviated by late 19th century paintings, the most famous being those by the Symbolist Puvis de Chavannes, depicting the life of Saint Geneviève.
This museum is housed in the magnificent manor that once belonged to the abbots of Cluny. Its 27 halls feature Gallo-Roman and Medieval works of art such as the statues of the apostles from Sainte-Chapelle, and master tapestries like the Dame à la Licorne and La Vie Seigneuriale. If you visit the museum’s flamboyant Gothic chapel, you’ll see the early thirteenth-century, double-faced Limousin cross acquired in 1978.The Musée de Cluny has amassed 20 000 works of art over the last 30 years and keeps them in its vaults.Fortunately, some of them are gradually being unearthed for display. The museum’s Renaissance collections, which were put into safekeeping after World War II, will soon be displayed at the Château d’Ecouen’s Renaissance Museum in the Val d’Oise.
