Amidst ongoing debates over the Panthéon’s role in the years following the French Revolution, the architect Charles de Wailly proposed to radically alter its existing appearance and structure in and transform the Panthéon into a memorial to the heroes of the French Republic.

De Wailly designed a highly symbolic and appropriately monumental structure as an answer to structural concerns over the solidity of the dome, and in order to erase the building’s religious character. He proposed pulling down the existing dome in order to incorporate a pyramid, that most recognizable symbol of eternity. His project was never realised.