Pantheon's new face(s)

Long-lasting renovations of the Pantheon have started. They will continue during some ten years, but the dome should obviously be visible again in about two years. The budget is of some 100 million Euros, some 80 percent covered by sponsoring. If you are interested, you can find out more about it here.

It was decided that no publicity should appear on the dome; instead “JR”, a photographer known for giant street art operations, has prepared a temporary decoration consisting of thousands of portraits, collected worldwide. The portraits can be found as well outside as inside.

Here we can see what the Pantheon dome looks like today … and how it looked before being covered...

… and here is the same comparison of the inside of the dome.

Also a large part of the floors are covered by portraits.

The Pantheon is of course basically a mausoleum where leading French personalities are buried, but it is (was) also known for the Foucault’s Pendulum, which will not be there again for demonstration of the earth rotation until the renovation of the dome is finished. (See more on my previous post about the Pantheon.)

Panthéon

We will now have a look at the Paris Pantheon. The best way to approach the building is probably arriving from the Luxembourg gardens... and when you turn around, you can see the Eiffel Tower.







What now is a secular building to honour some prestigious French personalities was originally thought to replace the old Sainte-Geneviève church (see yesterday’s post). The initiative was taken by Louis XV in 1744 as a gesture of gratitude for having recovered from what could have been a fatal illness thanks to his prayers to St. Genevieve.
The architect, J-G Soufflot (1713-80), planned for a neoclassical design, inspired by Greek and Roman monuments. The construction started in 1758 but was only finished after Soufflot’s death in 1789 and his plans were not entirely respected. 1789 was also the year of the Revolution and the new anti-clerical governors decided to use the building to a mausoleum for great French personalities. Depending on the regimes, it was again twice converted to a catholic church, but since 1885 it has been a temple for accommodating the remains of great French personalities, mainly intellectuals.
Wall paintings, statues... of course give tribute to different historical events, but St. Geneviève occupies a large part. The crypt has still a lot of free space. Generally you are not buried directly at the Pantheon, but it’s only later that decisions are made to transfer the remains here. Among the occupants you can find Lannes, Voltaire, de Bougainville, Hugo, Zola, Gambetta, Jaurès, Jean Moulin, Malraux, Dumas (the dad), Pierre & Marie Curie (the only woman … so far)... Maybe a few words about a curiosity, the “Foucault pendulum”: In 1851, the first official demonstration was made here - the physical proof that the earth is rotating. This is a copy of the 67 (220 ft) m long wire and the 28 kg (62 lbs) heavy ball, now permanently installed. An original pendulum created by Foucault (1819-68) can be found in the “Arts et Métiers” museum (Umberto Eco wrote about it and Cergie posted about it). If you wish to understand how it works, you may go here.

You can find some of these pictures on my photo-blog.