The Assembly Transforms Saint Genevieve into a Mausoleum

In 1790 the Marquis de Vilette proposed making the nearly complete Church of Saint Genevieve a temple devoted to liberty, on the model of the Pantheon in Rome, with statues of great men and their ashes in its underground recesses. The idea was formally adopted in April 1791 after the death of Comte de Mirabeau, President of the National Constituent Assembly, on 2 April 1791. On 4 April 1791 the Assembly decreed that the religious church become a temple of the nation, that the tomb of a great man become the altar of liberty, and approved the inscription "A grateful nation honors its great men." Mirabeau's funeral was held in the church that same day.