Climb the Dome for the View Paris Keeps to Itself
You come out of the Latin Quarter's narrow streets onto the Place du Panthéon and the building fills the square: a long colonnaded portico, a triangular pediment, and above it all a dome that you have already glimpsed from the Luxembourg Gardens. Inside, the nave is church-like — lofty arches, columns, frescoes — and where the altar would have been hangs the Foucault pendulum, swinging over the floor to demonstrate the Earth's rotation. Then you take the balcony route: more than 270 steps up, and a panoramic view of Paris at the top. Capacity up there is limited, which is why the crowd thins the higher you climb. Personal photography is allowed; large bags are not, so leave them at your hotel.
Walk the Crypt Where France Keeps Its Dead
Underneath the floor lies the reason many people come. More than 70 people are interred in the crypt, and you will recognise the names as you pass them. Voltaire's ashes were among the first placed here, and a statue stands in front of his tomb. Victor Hugo's tomb is deliberately simple, marked with his life dates. Marie Curie was the first woman buried at the Panthéon; her husband Pierre is interred here too. You will also find Louis Braille's marble tomb with its wreath, Jean-Jacques Rousseau's tomb with its two inscriptions, Simone Veil, interred in 2018, and Alexandre Dumas, moved here in 2002 by order of President Jacques Chirac. Take an audio guide — they come in several languages including English — and there is a free downloadable activity book for children.
Understand What You Are Standing In
This was not always a secular temple. King Louis XV commissioned it in the mid-1700s as a church dedicated to St. Genevieve, after recovering from illness, on a site that had previously held an abbey of St. Genevieve. Construction ran from 1758 to 1790, more than three decades, with funding repeatedly running short, and it was completed within months of the start of the French Revolution. Louis XV had already died. The building was then repurposed from a church into a secular temple and mausoleum for notable French citizens. The neoclassical style — columns, dome, triangular pediment — was modelled on the Pantheon in Rome, but what you are looking at was built in the 1700s. Inside, marble sculptures and paintings blend secular and religious themes, including a painting of Saint Genevieve, patron saint of Paris. Rotating exhibits run alongside the permanent collection, ranging from artwork to multimedia expositions.
Time It Right and Get In Without the Wait
- Hours shift with the season: through September 30, 10:45 a.m.–7 p.m.; October 1–March 31, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.; April–June, 10 a.m.–6:30 p.m.
- Closed January 1, May 1, November 1, November 11 and December 25.
- Admission is around €11.50, with a group rate of €9 per person for groups of 20 or more.
- Free entry for children under 18, disabled veterans and an accompanying guest, EU citizens under 26, registered job-seekers, and those receiving French state benefits.
- It is also free on the first Sunday of the month between November 1 and March 31 — expect crowds on those days.
- If you are travelling elsewhere in France, the Passion Monuments pass covers the Panthéon among 80 castles, villas and cathedral towers administered by the Centre des Monuments Nationaux; it is a digital e-card presented from a smartphone, €49 for one person and €78 for two in 2026, with no public transport or queue jumping and no auto-renewal. Monuments with website links require you to book a time slot.
Build a Left Bank Day Around It
The Panthéon sits at the centre of the Place du Panthéon in the 5th arrondissement, on the highest point in the arrondissement. The Luxembourg Gardens and the Cluny Museum are both close by, so you can pair the visit with a walk through the gardens or a look at the medieval collections. To reach it, use Metro line 10 or RER B, or buses 21, 27, 38, 82, 84, 85 and 89. Because the dome and the crypt reward unhurried attention, give yourself a half-day rather than an hour, and check the current exhibit before you go so you know what is showing alongside the permanent collection.
Start with the calendar: pick a date outside the closures, decide whether a first-Sunday free slot is worth the crowd, and check whether the Passion Monuments pass fits the rest of your trip. Then book your time slot, leave the large bag behind, and plan your route so you arrive on the Left Bank with enough of the day left for the gardens afterwards.