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Just beyond the Luxembourg gardens is the Pantheon. This site was chosen by the earliest French kings in honor of Saint Geneviève (or Saint Jennifer), the matron saint who saved the city from the Huns when Attila led them to its walls in the mid 400's. The structure here today was built under the rule of king Louis XV. It was a costly venture that, along with his financial aid to the American revolutionaries, left his treasury nearly empty. The financial situation would contribute in part to the French Revolution and the end of the monarchy. It was no small irony that the Revolution itself consecrated the new church to its own secular purposes. Today it is the resting place of many of the great heroes of secular France. |
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This page last updated on 6/1/2001 9:28:13 PM.