When King Louis XV suffered from a serious illness in 1744 he vowed to build a church dedicated to Sainte-Geneviève if he would survive. After he recovered, he entrusted the Marquis of Marigny with the task of building the church, which was to replace the sixth-century basilica, at the time known as the Abbey Sainte-Geneviève.
Pantheon, Paris
The portico
In 1755, the Marquis commissioned architect Jacques-Germain Soufflot to design a new, great church.