Pantheon, Paris (must see)

The Panthéon, situated in the Latin Quarter of Paris, has a dual purpose of serving as a church and a mausoleum for several famous French figures including Voltaire, Rousseau, Hugo, Braille, Dumas, and Zola. In 1995, the first female resident, Marie Curie, a two-time Nobel Prize winner, entered the frame.

In 1744, King Louis XV of France commissioned the construction of the Panthéon as a replacement for the old church of the Abbey of St. Genevieve, after he recovered from a serious illness and made a vow of gratitude. Jacques-Germain Soufflot was hired by the Marquis of Marigny to design the church, with construction starting two years later. Its façade was modeled after the Pantheon in Rome, with a dome that is reminiscent of Bramante's "Tempietto." Soufflot had the intention of combining the lightness and brightness of the Gothic cathedral with classical principles, but its role as a mausoleum required the great Gothic windows to be blocked. Nevertheless, it remains one of the most important architectural achievements of its time and the first great neoclassical monument.

Inside the domed structure are elegant Greek columns, 19th-century murals, and a steep spiral staircase that leads to a replica of the Foucault pendulum (a large device that accurately demonstrated the Earth's rotation), suspended from a cupola.