The Pantheon is  a mausoleum for prominent Frenchmen (Voltaire, Rousseau, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Émile Zola, Marie Curie, Jean Monnet…). It is located in the Latin Quarter, 5th arrondissement, on the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève, near the Jardin du Luxembourg. Modeled on the Pantheon in Rome and commissioned by King Louis XV in 1744.

The 5th arrondissement is one of the oldest districts of Paris, the location of the Quartier Latin (la Sorbonne). The area’s past survive in such sites as the Arènes de Lutèce, a Roman amphitheatre, and the Thermes de Cluny, a Roman thermae.