The Pantheon dominates much of the city's left bank. This enormous neoclassical structure was planned as the church of Ste. Genevieve, but it was completed after the onset of the French Revolution and converted to a secular mausoleum. Voltaire (the pen name of Francois Marie Arouet), Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Victor Hugo, Emile Zola, Marie and Pierre Curie, World War II resistance leader Jean Moulin and writer Andre Malraux are all buried inside. Solemn frescoes by Puvis de Chavannes decorate the walls, underscoring this monument's funereal solemnity. Foucault's Pendulum, which was conceived in 1859, hangs under the cupula to demonstrate the rotation of the Earth in an easy-to-see experiment. April-September, visitors can also climb 261 steps to the monumental colonnaded dome. April-September daily 10 am-6:30 pm; October-March daily 10 am-6 pm. 7.50 euros adults. Place du Pantheon (5th; Metro Cardinal Lemoine), Paris. Phone 01-4432-1800. http://pantheon.monuments-nationaux.fr.
