In 2002, French President Jacques Chirac ordered the transfer of the remains of the writer Alexandre Dumas, author of The Three Musketeers, from the cemetery of Villers-Cotterêts (Picardy), where he was born and where he was buried, to the Pantheon des Illustries in Paris. It was done "to redress injustice to one of the great writers" of France. So that he could be with the rest of the illustrious in this national mausoleum.

Years later, in 2015, two empty coffins entered, that of ethnologist and Pulitzer Prize winner Germaine Tillion and that of resistance figure Genevière de Gaulle-Anthonioz. His material remains were not there, it was a symbolic ceremony of "pantheonization", as the manager of this national monument, Pascal Monnet, described it at the time. Rome beatifies its saints and Paris pantheonizes its illustrious ones.

"The nineteenth century, with Romanticism, was a time when the feeling of a national identity was constituted, with the cult of great men. This feeling exists in other countries, but in France it is much stronger than in others," explains Laetitia Levantis, an art historian and researcher at the French research centre (CNRS).

France dedicated the Pantheon to honor the great men who have marked the nation's history: 75 men and six women. It is one of the most visited places in the capital and there are authors such as Victor Hugo, Voltaire or Emilie Zola. Only military personalities, such as Napoleon, are in the pantheon of Les Invalides.

If France has always cherished the memory of its national glories, Spain has not managed to create a unique space in which to pay homage to its own. In the nineteenth century, an attempt was made to make a monument of illustrious men in the church of San Francisco el Grande in Madrid, but without much success. At that time, the remains of Velázquez, Cervantes, El Cid or Murillo, among others, could not be located.

Those of Garcilaso de la Vega, Eduardo Dato and Quevedo, among others, were deposited in a chapel and then returned to their places of origin.

Some remains have not been found or have been very difficult to identify and this has made the project difficult. Those of Cervantes were a mystery, although some sources place it in the convent of the Trinitarias in Madrid, and those of Federico García Lorca, shot during the Civil War, are in a common grave but have not been found.

In the French case, in many cases the remains are not there either or there are doubts, but, as Monnet pointed out, "the important thing in pantheonization is the symbol".

Would it be a time to resume the project in our country? Levantis says: "For a nation, for its identity and its history, it is very important to have a place where we can pay tribute to the personalities who have built the legacy of the homeland. In France, it is inseparable from the country's history," explains the expert.

"There are countries where we question our history a lot, and this is something that happens especially in France. That's why, for the memory of the country, it was very important to include resistance heroes in the Pantheon," he explains, referring to France's role in World War II, which collaborated with the Nazis.

In the Pantheon, the greats of literature coexist with political figures such as Jean Moulin, director of the National Council of Resistance during the war, or Jean Jaurès, a pacifist who died before the start of the First World War. In 1924 the monument to "the unsung heroes, to the martyrs who died for France" was installed and, in addition to the remains, there are inscriptions with more than a thousand personalities.

"The Pantheon fulfills another higher function than that of paying a simple tribute to the most illustrious authors, since what is decided is to dedicate a space of their own to them to extol the value of what they contributed to the country," explains the expert.

There is a national consensus when it comes to determining who the undisputed personalities are and who deserve to be in. That is why the remains of Dumas were moved in 2002 or those of activist Simone Weil in 2018.

The process to enter "is very complex and changes from one personality to another." The President of the Republic has the last word. "It's a political act, as well as a symbolic one," Pascal Monnet, the monument's manager, told Le Figaro newspaper.

Intended as a church, the Pantheon was completed during the French Revolution and in 1791 the Assembly voted that this space be dedicated to housing the bodies of the great men of the country. On the façade, above, an inscription was placed that read: "To great men, the grateful homeland."

The monument lived through a chaotic time, changed its uses and it was in 1885, following the burial of Victor Hugo, that it was restored to its function as a mausoleum. In 1920, it was inscribed within the network of national monuments. There are only six women in the Pantheon.

The United Kingdom is another country with the most significant monuments. Westminster Abbey includes, among others, Charles Dickens, Kipling, Lord Byron and Jane Austen, as well as some members of the Monarchy. "This symbolic recognition has been maintained in France throughout history. Will new figures enter the Pantheon? We'll see in the future."

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