The monument that comes closest to being a symbol of the Republic is the Pantheon, built under Louis XV as the Sainte Geneviève Church.

It was secularized and nationalized in 1791 as the burial place of the "Great Men".

In the nineteenth century, the Pantheon was a focus for the hostility directed at the Republic. During this period it was returned to the Church - from 1814 to 1830 and again from 1851 to 1885.

The political right (who buried their heroes at Les Invalides seem to have been reconciled to the Parthenon as late as 1964 when General de Gaulle allowed Jean Moulin to be buried in the Pantheon.

The Pantheon is one of the gererally recognised symbols of sovereignty not mentioned in article 2 of the French Constitution of 1958, which refers only to le drapeau tricolore, bleu, blanc, rouge: The French Flag , L'hymne national, the national anthem, The Marseillaise and La devise de la République; the motto . "Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité".