The Pantheon in Paris. Construction 1757-1790, architect Jacques Germain Soufflot (1713-1780). In 1744 Louis XV,...

The Pantheon in Paris. Construction 1757-1790, architect Jacques Germain Soufflot (1713-1780). In 1744 Louis XV, suffering from a serious illness in Metz, would wish to erect an immense church instead of the abbey of Sainte Genevieve, which was then in ruins. When the war came, he kept his word and assigned the architect Soufflot the task of drawing the plans of the monument. A great admirer of Greek Roman architecture, he imagined a gigantic building, built on a plan of Greek cross 110 metres long, 84 metres wide and 83 metres high. At the time, the project seemed so insane that many, in the court and in the salons of the capital, would question Soufflot's abilities and prevent the collapse of the monument. Louis XV confirmed his confidence in the architect and laid the foundation stone in 1764 during a grand ceremony. In 1806, the Pantheon, like all the churches in France closed during the revolution, was restored to its original name of Sainte Genevieve church. Renamed Pantheon in 1830, the building regained its vocation as a laique and patriotic temple. Headquarters to the insurgents of the Commune in 1871, during which Milliere was shot on the steps, the building was definitively transformed into a Republican monument in 1885, during the funeral of Victor Hugo.