00:00 Perched on the Saint-Jean-Feuve mountain in Paris, the Pantheon was originally a church
00:12 built from 1764 onwards at the request of Louis XV.
00:15 The architect Germain Souffleur was commissioned for this neoclassical project, which later
00:20 served as a model for the Capitol in Washington, D.C.
00:23 To erect a dome of such a height, 83 meters, Souffleur used a ruse.
00:28 He fitted three domes inside each other.
00:30 One is visible from the inside, with boxes that let the light through, then the middle
00:35 one, and then finally the outer dome, made of stone and covered with lead.
00:40 Souffleur set the trend of using reinforced stone.
00:43 During the French Revolution in 1791, the Constituent Assembly transformed the church
00:47 into a national necropolis.
00:49 The aim was to honour the universal values of the Enlightenment.
00:53 In the 19th century, the edifice alternated between being a church and a secular building.
00:58 In 1851, Foucault's Pendolium was installed in the nave, providing experimental proof
01:02 of the Earth's rotation.
01:04 On the 1st of June 1885, the burial of Victor Hugo marked the definite desecration of the
01:09 Pantheon.
01:12 The crypt is made up of four galleries located under each arm of the nave.
01:16 It can hold 300 people.
01:17 Politicians, writers, scientists, a few clerics and many soldiers are buried there.
01:22 All are legendary national figures.
01:24 Mirabeau, who contributed to inspiring the French Revolution, was the first in 1791.
01:31 He was followed by Voltaire, then Jean-Jacques Rousseau in 1794.
01:35 Several people have since been removed, such as Mirabeau and Marat.
01:38 In 1995, Marie Curie was the first woman to be installed in the Great Men's Enclosure.
01:43 In 2007, President Chirac pantheonised 2,700 people who saved thousands of Jews during
01:49 World War II.
01:51 In 2021, Josephine Baker becomes the first black woman to enter the Pantheon.
01:56 Since the beginning of the Fifth Republic in 1958, the President chooses who enters
02:00 the Pantheon Mausoleum in agreement with the family of the deceased.
02:04 There is no official text governing either the criteria or the ceremony's form.
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