Neoclassical Crypt or Church
Neighborhood: 5th Arrondissement
Nearest Train: métro: Cluny-la-Sorbonne. RER: Luxembourg
Phone: +33 1 44 32 18 00
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Built between 1764 and 1790, this impressive building was commissioned by King Louis XV in honor of Saint-Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris, who had cured him from a mysterious illness. It was completed just before the French Revolution, when it was changed from a church to a secular mausoleum for great men of France. Today, visitors admire this early example of Neoclassical architecture, the resting place of famous writers and philosophers such as Emile Zola, Victor Hugo, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Voltaire, the scientists Pierre and Marie Curie, and Andre Malraux, a minister under Charles de Gaulle. The architecture of the façade is recognizably inspired by the Roman Pantheon. The dome, 83 meters high (272 feet), resembles the dome of the St. Paul's Cathedral in London and that of the chapel at Invalides, also in Paris. The monument dedicated to Diderot just before entering the crypt is particularly striking, decorated by magnificent frescoes of Saint-Genevieve. Children enter for free.
Apr-Sept: M-Su 9:30a-6:30p; Oct-Mar: M-Su 10a-5:30p
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