What’s really inside the Paris Pantheon?

Being induced to the panther in Paris is the highest posthumous honor that France has to give: the entrance is the gift of the Head of State and is restricted to the people who have made an exceptional contribution to France.

The great men (and less significant women) given this honor are an eclectic group: politicians, philosophers, poets, scientists, resistance fighters, dancers and the leader of a slave rebellion, to name just a few.

In French the process is known as being ‘Panthéoniser‘In English it is translated as’ included’ in the Panthéon. But this means that people are realized there?

Well, it depends. . .

Bodies

Some people are buried there, and those are usually the people who were first induced. When the Panthéon first opened in 1791 as the secular monument to the greatest citizens of France, people were often given the honor immediately after having died, which means that they could be buried directly in the monument.

This was the case of the scientist born in Polish Marie Curie – Discoverer of Radium. His body is inside the Panthéon: the coffin wrapped in several lead sheets to protect radiation visitors that is believed to be still in his body.

Also read 5 things to know about the Panthéon in Paris

There are also a couple of people buried there as ‘more one’, for example, Sophie Berthelot is the wife of the famous Chemist Marcellin Berthelot. She died only a couple of hours before him and he had frequently declared that she wanted to be buried by her side, so both rest in the Panthéon.

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Sophie was the first woman in the Panthéon, but she usually did not tell her because she is not there for her own merits: the first woman formally included in the Panthéon was Marie Curie (she of the lead coffin).

For those who were induced some years after their death, things were a bit more complicated and involved their exhumed bodies of their original tombs and reprimand again. Or at least one body. . . The great philosophers Rousseau and Voltaire are there, but when their bodies were extrumated years after their death, it seems that the precise records of the cemeteries had lost their legs.

Some ‘few bones’ were unearthed and sent to Panthéon, but nobody really knows who the bones are.

Ashes/earth

Not in an unnatural way, some relatives are not interested in the idea of ​​disturbing the rest of their loved ones, so when the invitation to Panthéoniser They come, they opt for something more symbolic.

If the person were incinerated, he could send some of his ashes to the Panthéon, or simply a floor of his tomb suddenly. This is the case of the two Genviève resistance fighters of Gaulle-Anthioz and Germain Tillon, both induced in 2015.

It is also what happened for the dancer and civil rights activist of the Americans Josephine Baker, induced in 2022. Therefore, the answer to the question of the pub questionnaire ‘Where is Josephine Baker buried’ is not the Panthéon, here she?

The next member will be Robert Badinter, the man responsible for the abolition of the death penalty in France. His family has indicated that they do not want to disturb their grave, and that it will provide a monument to enter the Panthéon.

Unknown tombs

There are several people in the Panthéon for whom none of these options is available, since they do not have known tombs.

This is the case of Toussaint Louverture, leader of the slave rebellion of Haiti and struggle for independence in the 1790s. He died in prison in France in 1803 and was buried in an unmarked grave. When it was included in the Panthéon in 1998, it simply received a plaque.

Similarly, the resistance fighter of World War II Jean Moulin, deported to a concentration camp and died on the route, and the pilot and author Antoine of Saint -Exupéry, author of The Little Prince, who disappeared while flying the Second World War of the King.

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In the case of Moulin, his sister had caused ashes: they belong to a Frenchman who died in a transport to a Nazi concentration camp and was cremated, but does not really know who the ashes are.

Partial bodies

There was also a letter of thanks – phase of dismembered bodies and divide them between the Panthéon and a local cemetery.

The politician Léon Gambetta removed and placed his heart in an urn, which is in the Panthéon, while the rest of his body is buried in Nice.

Perhaps the strangest example of everything is Louis Braille – inventor of the Braille writing system for blind people. His body is in the Panthéon, less his hands. His hands, which as a blind man used to read using a new system, were removed and buried in his family plot in Coupray, on the outskirts of Paris.

Visits

Each member has a stone Cavau (Tomb) with your name, so when you visit it, you can say who is buried there and who is not.

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The Panthéon, in the 5th Central District of Paris, is open to visitors 7 days a week. It costs € 13 and is free for children. It is not essential to reserve in advance, but it is a good idea if you are visiting square periods, especially if you want to climb to the top of the monument.

This implies climbing 203 steps, but the view from the top is spectacular.