European Adventure Recap - The Pantheon (Crypt Edition)

Sunday October 25, 2009

Paris, France

The Pantheon's lower level is a maze of Crypts.  It sounds rather creepy, and to some extent it was, but it was also fairly fascinating. 

"The inscription above the entrance [to the Pantheon (shown here - the 4th picture down on my previous post)] reads AUX GRANDS HOMMES LA PATRIE RECONNAISSANTE ("For great men the grateful Nation")." Source. This burial site is a place on which France puts great emphasis of honor and respect - dedicated to those who have greatly infulenced the history of France.

The spiral staircase leading down to the Crypts.

This shot is looking straight down the middle of the stairwell from the top.

And this one is looking straight up the stairwell from the bottom.

Doesn't it look Dungeon-esque?

I was quite impressed with the interior of the Crypts - I expected something more primitive I think.

There are several notable people entombed in the Pantheon Crypts.  One of the most famous is Voltaire, a philosopher.

There's a statue in front of his tomb.  I assume it's Voltaire, although it doesn't really look like the picture of him on the above sign (not enough hair).

Hallway after hallway, the Crypts seemed never-ending.

This is what a typical door into one of the Crypt rooms looked like.

The Crypts rooms were very stark, some had windows, others didn't.

Another notable person that's buried at the Pantheon (and the only woman with such an honor) is Marie Curie, renowned physicist and chemist.

Marie's grave is adorned with a few flowers.  Her husband is entombed in the same room.

The hotel where we stayed in Paris was located on Rue Monge (Monge Street).  We assume that the street was named after this man - Gaspard Monge who rests at the Pantheon as well.  He was a "French mathematician and inventor of descriptive geometry".

Also buried here is Victor Hugo, whose "best-known works are the novels Les Misérables and Notre-Dame de Paris (known in English also as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame)".

More hallways show drawings and pictures of the Pantheon from the past (more on this is the next post).