Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1908-07-28

THE FAMOUS PANTHEON.
Magnificent Tomb Of Many of the
Great Men of France.

Magnificent Tomb of Many of the
Great Men of France.
The Pantheon in which the attempt
was made to assassinate Major Drey-'
fus has been ecalled the Westminster
abbey Of France. Famous men Of
France are entombed there. On its
site Clovis built church to the apos-
ties. 1t has been sacred ground since
500 years after the birth of Christ
The church built by Clovis was de-
stroyed by Norman pirates about the.
year 1000. It was replaced by the abb
hey Of St. Genevieve, of which now
only the bell tower remains. Louis
XIV. built the Pantheon. It was a
splendid pile, the combined work of
two famous French architects, Souf-
fot and Rondelet. 1t is in the form of
a Greek cross. In front it has su-
perb portico of twenty-five Corinthian
! columns sixty-ive feet high, reposing
| on a magnificent perron of twelve
| mighty steps. In the interior are six
teen windows, with thirty-two CORN
THAN columns, and high above all,
more than 300 feet in the air, stretches
| its vast dome.
Here lie Mirabeau, Voltaire, Jean
Jacques Rousseau, Marshal Lannes
and many other famous Frenchmen.
The building is filed with superb fres.
Goes, and it is the goa! of every ambi'
tious Frenchman to find resting place
here among the honored dead of his
race.
Napoleon the Great took the Pan
4 theon and turned it over to the eccle-
siastical authorities, who once more
called the structure the Church Of st.
Geneyieve, but it still remained in the
eyes Of all Frenchmen the resting
place of the hero dead Of their race.
Lannes was buried in its crypt. Then
| came Portals, Cabanis, Wen. La.
grange, Bongainville. In all, thirty.
nine Napoleonic heroes, statesmen and
great citizens were put there, with
grandiose professions, cannons boom
!, ing, solemn music, solemn discourse
flags and flowers. with vast multitudes
surrounding. ;55.'
With the restoration Louis XVIII.
liking the Pantheon idea without ths
/ Pantheon name, had Gros begin the
great work Of interior decoration. II
the high part Of the dome he painted
the apotheosis of st. Genevieye. Dur
ing this period a few statesmen ant
soldiers had the honor of being buried
in the crypt. Souf1ot was the last. u
1929; then came the popular revolution
, Of 1880. n@
| During the siege of Paris the cryp
was used as powder magazine. Whel
the leaders Of the commune wer
pressed down that way they took it 70
headquarters. H.
The ecclesiastical authorities remain
cd in charge from the second empir
until 1885. The death Of Victor Hug
put them to embarrassment. TIL
French government decreed that tn
great poet be put In the Pantheo
crypt, and as he went In the eecls
siastical authorities went ont. 1t ha
J. been said that Voltaire and Roussea
: had been taken out years previously
Then years ago, therefore, the republi
wished to know the truth. Reverend,
scientifically and historically the tw
sepulchers were opened. They wer
q found intact. s.
: In 1889 parliament decreed that til
e remains Of four more Napoleonic hi
roes be transported to the Pantheon
+ They were. Lazare Carnot, grapdfathe
Of the martyred president; Marcia,
"colonel att sixteen and general a
twenty-one;" Baudin. the Republica
d revolutionary representative of 1s4'
n and De la Tour dAuvergne ''the{prt
e mtier grenadier Of Rrance."-Baltimos
# American.