Exterior view

Jacques-Germain Soufflot received the commission to build the church of Sainte-Geneviève in Paris. He dreamed of a synthesis of "Greek sublimity and the ethereal Gothic". He constructed a building on a Greek cross, with portico extension. Its Neoclassical interior evoked a sense of lightness in spite of its academic rigor. The crossing piers nevertheless had to be reinforced during construction in order to support the monumental dome. This church was altered in Republican times and converted for use as the Pantheon.

View the ground plan of the Panthéon, Paris.