# Official Laying of the Cornerstone of the New Church of Sainte-Geneviève [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [MACHY, Pierre-Antoine de]() - Date: 1751-1800 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 81 x 129 cm ## Commentary When Louis XV fell ill at Metz in 1744, he invoked the aid of Sainte-Geneviève, patron saint of the city of Paris. Healed, he promised the canons at the abbey of Sainte-Geneviève, a venerable Paris monastery, to erect a church that would honour saint, monarch, and capital. Ten years later Jacques Germain Soufflot \(1713-1780\) was asked to draw up plans; the basement section had already been completed when the first stone was officially laid in 1764. The church, situated on the highest hill in Paris, was ultimately converted by the revolution thirty years later into the national Pantheon. ## Related artworks - [Clearing the Area in front of the Louvre Colonnade]() - [Clearing the Area in front of the Louvre Colonnade]() - [Demolition of L'Église des Saints Innocents, Paris]() - [Fantastical Architectural Study with Figures]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()