On your itinerary dedicated to medieval architecture, you walked past two colossal, domed structures, which we will now discuss properly.
The first is the Chapelle de la Sorbonne, which is part of the vast and somewhat monotonous university building that was rebuilt at the end of the 19th century. The chapel faces the street, but I suggest admiring it from the vast internal courtyard.
Inspired by Roman Baroque style, it was built in the first half of the seventeenth century with the main purpose of creating a mausoleum around the tomb of Cardinal Richelieu. The great protagonist of European politics died seven years after the church's creation, which can boast being the first sacred building in Paris with a masonry dome.
The chapel's interior was plundered during the French Revolution, but there are still important works from the seventeenth century: firstly Richelieu's grandiose tomb in black and white marble, and the Doctors of the Church painted by Philippe de Champaigne, which depicts the four saints Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, and Gregory the Great.
Continuing uphill, you'll reach the top of the hill dedicated to Saint Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris. Surrounded by a round of columns, you can see the splendid white dome of the Pantheon that was built in the second half of the 18th century and is a masterful example of the rising Neoclassicism.
At the center of a large square, the building was first a church devoted to the saint, but then lost its sacred character after the Revolution and was transformed, with some renovations, into the Temple of the Homeland. It was then reconsecrated in the Napoleonic era, but continued to be the burial and celebratory site of illustrious men until its definitive deconsecration in 1885 at Victor Hugo's funeral.
The remains of philosophers, writers and politicians lay here, as well as those of one woman: Marie Curie, for her scientific accomplishments.
If you visit its interior, you'll discover how truly majestic the Pantheon is with its solemn rows of grooved columns supporting arches and loggias. In the vast space of its central dome 67 meters tall, you can see the famous pendulum of Foucault, which is the sphere the great physicist used to demonstrate the oscillation of the Earth's axis in 1851.
FUN FACT: right in front of the Sorbonne you can see a statue of the exceptional writer and philosopher Michel de Montaigne. Legend has it that it's lucky to touch his right foot and say "Hello, Montaigne!" Imagine how many students do it before exams!
Language: English