What Is the Panthéon?

The Panthéon began in 1758 as a church. King Louis XV commissioned architect Jacques-Germain Soufflot to build a monument dedicated to Saint Genevieve, Paris's patron saint, after recovering from a serious illness he credited to her intervention. Construction dragged on for three decades and wasn't finished until 1790 — a year after the French Revolution began, which changed the building's purpose before it ever opened as a church.

In 1791, the revolutionary National Assembly repurposed the unfinished building as a secular mausoleum for France's "great men" (grands hommes). It swung back and forth between church and mausoleum through the 19th century before becoming permanently secular in 1885, following Victor Hugo's state funeral. Today the crypt holds the remains of Voltaire, Rousseau, Victor Hugo, Émile Zola, and Marie Curie, alongside more recent additions such as Resistance figure Jean Moulin and politician Simone Veil. In the nave, a working replica of Foucault's Pendulum — installed by physicist Léon Foucault in 1851 — still demonstrates the Earth's rotation exactly as it did for 19th-century visitors.

Tickets & Prices 2026

The standard adult ticket is €16, confirmed directly on the official site in July 2026. The Centre des Monuments Nationaux, which runs the Panthéon, also lists a reduced rate and a combined ticket with the Basilica of Saint-Denis around €26 at certain points in the year — pricing shifts by season, so treat €16 as the current baseline and confirm the exact figure for your travel dates on the official practical-information page before booking.

Several groups enter free: EU residents aged 16 to 25, under-16s accompanied by an adult ticket-holder, and disabled visitors plus one companion. There's no general student discount for non-EU visitors, which surprises some travelers coming from the Louvre or Musée d'Orsay, where the same EU-wide under-26 policy applies. If you're weighing whether a multi-attraction pass beats paying per monument, our breakdown of whether the Paris Pass is worth it walks through the math.

One caveat worth knowing before you pay: the panorama level — the colonnade walk around the dome — is currently closed for renovation work, with no confirmed reopening date as of mid-2026. Don't buy expecting rooftop access; the crypt and Foucault's Pendulum in the nave remain the core of the visit.

Opening Hours & Best Time to Go

The Panthéon runs on two seasonal schedules. From April 1 to September 30, it's open daily 10:00 to 18:30. From October 1 to March 31, hours shrink to 10:00–18:00. In both seasons, last entry is 45 minutes before closing, so arriving at 17:45 in summer (or 17:15 in winter) is cutting it close.

The monument is closed on January 1, May 1, and December 25, and runs a modified schedule — opening later, around midday — on the first working Monday of each month. That monthly closure catches more visitors off guard than the annual ones; if your trip lands on a first Monday, check the exact hours before walking over.

For crowds, the Panthéon is genuinely one of the calmer major Left Bank sights — it doesn't require the timed-entry booking that the Eiffel Tower or Louvre do, and mid-morning on a weekday rarely means a meaningful queue. The busiest stretch is early-to-mid afternoon on weekends and during French school holidays, when it's often paired with a Luxembourg Gardens walk.

How Long to Plan

Budget 45 minutes to an hour for a focused visit — enough time to see the nave, Foucault's Pendulum, and descend into the crypt to find specific tombs. Visitors who read every plaque and take the full self-guided route through the crypt's corridors typically spend closer to 1.5 hours.

Because the panorama is currently closed, there's no extra 20–30 minutes to budget for the dome climb that would normally apply at a comparable monument — which is part of why the Panthéon pairs so easily with something else on the same morning, like a stop at the nearby Notre-Dame Cathedral or a slower Latin Quarter wander.

How to Get There

The Panthéon sits at Place du Panthéon, 75005 Paris, in the Latin Quarter on the Left Bank. The closest connections are Métro Line 10 and Line 7, and the RER B stop at Luxembourg station, a short walk away through the Luxembourg Gardens. There's no dedicated parking near the monument, and central Left Bank streets are narrow and often restricted — the Métro or a walk from a nearby sight is the more reliable option than driving or taking a taxi in daytime traffic.

Because it sits between the Seine and the Luxembourg Gardens, the Panthéon works naturally as a midpoint stop rather than a start-or-end-of-day destination — most visitors reach it on foot from somewhere else in the 5th or 6th arrondissement.

Visit Tips: Queues, Booking & Common Mistakes

Tickets aren't a compulsory timed-entry system the way the Eiffel Tower's are, but buying online in advance through the official site still lets you skip the ticket-office line during busy periods, particularly weekend afternoons. There's no dedicated luggage storage on-site, so travel light — standard backpacks are fine, but anything larger will be a problem at the entrance.

The most common mistake is assuming the panorama or dome climb is included and being disappointed to find it closed — check current status before you go, especially if a rooftop view was the main draw. The second is skipping the crypt entirely: it's included in the ticket and easy to miss if you only explore the nave, but it's where most of the Panthéon's famous names actually are. Photography is allowed for personal use, but tripods and drones are prohibited, and dogs aren't permitted except service animals.

Nearby Attractions

The Luxembourg Gardens are a five-minute walk and the natural pairing for a Panthéon morning — free to enter and one of the best spots in Paris to sit down afterward. From there, it's a short walk or a couple of Métro stops to the Musée d'Orsay along the Left Bank, or across the river to the Louvre Museum if you're building a longer museum day.

For a change of pace after the Panthéon's crypt and neoclassical dome, our guide to hidden gems in Paris covers several Left Bank spots most first-time visitors walk past entirely.

Frequently Asked Questions