The Pantheon

The Pantheon: The Enlightenment, the Rise of Science and Individual Having been to the Pantheon in Rome and the Pantheon in Athens gave me a false understanding of what the Pantheon in Paris would be like. I was expecting it would be a temple where Greek or Roman deities were worshiped and instead found a place where normal human beings were being honored. To my great surprise, the 73 men and women being honored were neither Kings nor Queens, but heroes of the republics. They are considered heroes because of their great contributions in the areas of science, literature, philosophy, among others. The Pantheon was originally built as a church dedicated to Saint Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris, but after the French Revolution it was transform into a mausoleum. What makes the building so unique are the uncovered murals wrapping around its walls. On these walls, you can still see the paintings depicting biblical scenes but in the back, where you will normally see an altar, there is a statue of lady liberty which symbolizes the end of the monarchy and by consequence, also the great power the Roman Catholic Church had in France during the time of the monarchy. The Pantheon is meant to celebrate the drastic change from religion and superstition to science, reasoning and observation which can be seen as synonym for when the world moved from the Dark Ages into the Renaissance. Not long ago, the center point at the Pantheon had been a pendulum created by the physicist Leon Foucault to demonstrate the rotation of the earth. Another fact that might be interesting to those who are attracted in science, is that the Pantheon is the final resting place for the scientist couple, Marie and Pierre Currie. As they both devoted their lives to science, they were awarded the Nobel Prize for their research in radiation. Other people who are celebrated in the Pantheon who also used observation and analysis, like scientists, but reached different conclusions in regards to society are philosophers. Buried in the Pantheon is one of the France’s most famous philosophers, Voltaire. In accordance to him, humans need someone to follow because they are constantly distracted by unimportant things. The Pantheon is also intended to celebrate creativity and great imagination. It is therefore not surprising to know that at some point it was also the home of the famous sculpture The Thinker by August Rodin. Among some of the writers buried at the Pantheon is Victor Hugo, the author of the famous books Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. Alexander Dumas, the author of The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, was not buried at the Pantheon until 2002, 132 years after his death. This was due to the fact that his father was the son of a slave.