France’s great and good under one dome on the Left Bank. Seventy-five minutes, and the crypt is the point.
The short version
- Open every day, 10:00 to 18:00 from October to March and to 18:30 from April to September, last entry 45 minutes before. Details and tickets at paris-pantheon.fr.
- €13 at the door or online. Under 16 is free with an adult, and ages 16 to 25 are free if you live in the EU. The Paris Museum Pass works here.
- No slot is required. Buy online to skip the till on a weekend; on a weekday, walk up.
- The dome climb and its view over Paris are closed for renovation, with no reopening date given. Don’t plan the visit around it.
- Go down to the crypt. Voltaire, Rousseau, Hugo, Zola, Marie and Pierre Curie, Jean Moulin and Simone Veil are all there, and it is the reason the building matters.
- RER B to Luxembourg or line 10 to Maubert-Mutualité, then a five-minute walk uphill. The first working Monday of the month it opens at 12:00.
Getting in
The €13 ticket covers the nave, the crypt and whatever exhibition is in the building. Under-16s go in free on an adult’s ticket; 16-to-25-year-olds who live in the EU, teachers and job seekers get a free ticket at the till with proof. The first Sunday of the month is free for everyone from November to March.
There is no cloakroom and no lockers. A normal backpack is fine; suitcases, scooters and helmets are not. The ramp outside and the lift inside cover the whole nave, so wheelchairs and strollers are no problem; the crypt is down a staircase.
If the Latin Quarter is the plan for the day, our private Notre Dame and Latin Quarter tour walks the hill with a licensed guide and passes the Panthéon door; buy the ticket there and go in after.
The visit
Louis XV ordered the church of Sainte-Geneviève in 1755 and the Revolution turned it into a mausoleum for great Frenchmen in 1791, before it was finished. It changed sides between church and temple four times in the century after. The dome is the one you see from across the river.
Start in the nave. Foucault’s pendulum swings under the dome, and the murals of Saint Geneviève by Puvis de Chavannes run along the walls. Twenty minutes.
Then the crypt, which takes the other hour. Voltaire and Rousseau face each other at the entrance. Victor Hugo, Zola and Dumas share a vault. Marie Curie was moved here in 1995, the first woman admitted for her own work, beside Pierre. Jean Moulin, Joséphine Baker and Simone Veil are among the newer arrivals.
Through January 31, 2027, Vies minuscules fills the nave with work by about thirty artists from the Centre Pompidou collection, Boltanski among them. It is included in the ticket.
When to go
Weekday mornings at 10:00. The building is big enough that it never feels packed, but the crypt corridors are narrow and school groups arrive mid-morning.
It is open every day but three, and the inside is the same in any weather. A rainy afternoon is a good Panthéon afternoon.
Closed January 1, May 1 and December 25. Opens at 12:00 on the first working Monday of the month, and closes at 17:00 on December 24 and 31.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to book the Panthéon in advance?
No. Tickets are sold at the door every open day. Buying online skips the till, which helps on weekends and in summer; the rest of the time the line is short.
Can I go up to the dome?
Not now. The viewing platform is closed for renovation work and the monument gives no reopening date. The nave and the crypt are open as usual.
How long does the Panthéon take?
Seventy-five minutes: twenty under the dome, an hour in the crypt if you read the names. Add fifteen for the exhibition in the nave while it runs.
Is the Panthéon free?
For under-16s with an adult, for EU residents aged 16 to 25 with ID, for Paris Museum Pass holders, and for everyone on the first Sunday of the month from November to March. Otherwise €13.
Is there a tour that covers this part of Paris?
Yes. Our half-day Paris walking tour is about three hours with a private guide, start times from 9:00 to 18:00, and a Latin Quarter route takes in the Panthéon, the Sorbonne and the streets where Hemingway and Sartre lived. Go inside the Panthéon on your own at the end.
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