The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-08-16
WHERE CARNoT WAS LAID.

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
| The Pantheon. in which the remains
of the late President Carnot are en-
tombed, was originally the church OF
Ste. Genevieve. Its religious uses were
abolished and its name changed during
the revolution of 1889: restored by Louis
XVIII, and again secularized by pres
idential decree of May "a, 1855. Clovis,
the founder of the French monarchy
(467-51D, built a church on it near the
spot to st. Peter and st. Paul, which
afterward became a celebrated abbey,
where Ste. Genevieve, the patron saint
of Paris, was buried in SIP. The pres
ent edifice was suggested to Louis XIV.
by his mistress, Mime. de Pompadour,
and the first stone was laid by that
sweet-scented king, September 8, 1864.
The church was intended TO be repro
duction on a small scale of st. Peters
at Rome, and the cost of construction
was met by the proceeds of a royal lot
terry. The plan is Greek cross, three
hundred and two feet in length by two
hundred and fifty-fve transverse. The
portico, approached by eleven steps,
occupying the entire breadth, presents
a front of six fiuted Corinthian col
umns, sixty feet in height by six in
diameter, which with sixteen internal
ones, support triangular pediment
one hundred and twenty-nine feet wide
by twenty-five feet high. This pedi-
ment contains an elaborate sculpture
relief representing France dispensing
donors TO some of her greatest men.
The dome is sixty-six feet in diameter
and from the pavement to the top is
two hundred and sixty-eight feet. The
interior of the church is very beautiful
in its design and decorations, some of
the frescoes being the work of famous
artists and especially fine.
That part to the purposes of which
the building is now dedicated is be-
meath. where are located q large num-
Der of vaults constructed OF immense
stones laid together without mortar or
cement of any kind. Among the nota-
BILE people lodged here are Souffiot. the
architect of the church; Lagrange, the
mathemat ician; Marshal Lannes, duke
of Montebello; Carnot, Napoleon's
minister of war and grandfather OF the
NCdu pIcSlOtuI. Jean Il dul <AcKu IT, W hOil
Charlotte Corday righteously slew in
1913, had place here for a few years
and then his corpse was dragged out
and thrown into a neighboring sewer.
Mira beau was inferred here with great
pomp in 1871, but his dust was after
ward removed-no one knows where.
Voltaire, inferred the same year,
shared the same fate. His heart, ii
seems, had been given to his niece,
Nine. Denis, who bequeathed II TO
friend. When. IN 1854. it was proposed
to place it with the rest of the body,
the sarcophagus in the pantheon was
opened-and found empty. The decree
OF 1855, mentioned above, was issued
shortly after the decease of Victor
Hugo. and reads as follows: Article l.
The Pantheon restored to its original
and legal destination. The remains OF
great men who have merited national
gratitude Will be deposited there |
Article . The above provisions are I
applicable to citizens TO whom a law !
shall have decreed national funeral. |
a decree Of the president of the repub- |
lie shall order the transportation OF I
their remains to the Pantheon.