The clandestine restoration of the Panthéon clock in Paris
Some stories seem to come straight out of a novel. This is one of them. For about a year, a small group regularly entered the Panthéon in Paris with tools, parts and materials, until they managed to restore a monumental clock that had stood still for decades. They did it without permission, without funding and without seeking public recognition.
This story is a few years old now, but it still deserves to be told. In 2006, a monumental clock in the Panthéon in Paris started working again after an intervention carried out without the authorisation of the bodies responsible for the monument. For about a year, members of the group Untergunther, part of the UX (Urban eXperiment) collective, regularly entered the building, set up a workshop in a little-used space and carried out the mechanical restoration of the clock, which had been stopped since the 1960s.
When the work was finished, the group informed the Panthéon's administration that the clock was operational again. Instead of recognition for the work done, the intervention led to legal proceedings. The members involved were eventually acquitted, but the case sparked a debate about heritage conservation and about the role of private initiative when a historic object goes without maintenance for many years.
Before looking at that intervention, it is worth getting to know the clock and the building that houses it.
The forgotten clock
The Panthéon stands on the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève, in the centre of Paris. The building was designed by Jacques-Germain Soufflot in the second half of the 18th century and, since the 19th century, has been the national mausoleum where some of the most important figures in French history rest, such as Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Victor Hugo, Marie Curie and Alexandre Dumas.
Among the monument's many technical features is a monumental clock built in the 19th century by the clockmaker Wagner. For many years this clock governed the time shown in the building, requiring periodic maintenance and manual winding.
According to various accounts and documentation published later, the clock stopped working in the mid-1960s and remained idle for about forty years. Lack of use led to the progressive deterioration of the mechanism, and no restoration was ever undertaken.
Who the restorers were
The intervention was carried out by the Untergunther, one of the groups that made up the collective UX (Urban eXperiment). Since the 1980s, this collective has pursued a range of activities linked to exploring hard-to-reach spaces in Paris and to preserving heritage that it considered neglected.
Its members included architects, historians, engineers, craftspeople and other professionals who took part in projects on a voluntary basis.
The Untergunther was the branch devoted to conservation and restoration. According to the group itself, its projects focused on heritage that, despite its historical or technical interest, remained out of public view and for that reason rarely received any conservation work.
Among the participants was the clockmaker Jean-Baptiste Viot, at the time a specialist in the restoration of monumental clocks. On examining the mechanism of the Panthéon clock, Viot concluded that its state of decay justified an intervention before some of the parts suffered irreversible damage. The group then decided to take on the project on its own initiative and to fund it out of its members' own pockets.
A workshop inside the Panthéon in Paris
In September 2005, the Untergunther began work. The group set up a small workshop in a room near the base of the Panthéon's dome, a space that was no longer in regular use. For about a year, its members periodically entered the building to work on the clock, usually at night, without interfering with the normal running of the monument.
The workshop was fitted out with a workbench, tools, technical documentation and the material needed to dismantle, clean, repair and reassemble the various components of the mechanism. Some parts had to be made or rebuilt, respecting the clock's original configuration. Technical direction of the work was in the hands of Jean-Baptiste Viot.
According to accounts later published by the group and by various media outlets, the restoration took about twelve months. Once the mechanical work was complete, the members of the Untergunther informed the Panthéon's administration that the clock was operational again and ready to return to service.
The technical side of the restoration
The Panthéon clock was not brought back to life by means of a makeshift solution. The aim of the intervention was to recover the existing mechanism, respecting its original construction and the principles of monumental clock restoration.
When Jean-Baptiste Viot started work, he found two separate mechanisms. The first was an electromechanical movement installed at a later date. The second was the historic Wagner clock, dating from 1824, a weight-driven mechanism with quarter striking, which had been at a standstill for several decades.
According to Viot, the choice was to recover the Wagner mechanism and give it back its original working configuration. The movement was dismantled, cleaned and inspected. Parts in good condition were kept and reused. Damaged or missing components were rebuilt one by one, using traditional manufacturing techniques.
One of the most important interventions concerned the escape wheel, which had to be rebuilt. It was also necessary to make a new pendulum rod, which was missing from the mechanism. These parts were not adapted from modern components; they were made specifically for this clock, respecting the dimensions, materials and geometry of the original design.
Viot says the biggest challenge was not making the parts but reproducing their geometry correctly. A small error in the dimensions of the escape wheel or of the pendulum's impulse system would have compromised the clock's operation. For that reason, every operation was carried out according to the traditional practices of monumental clockmaking.
While the new pendulum rod was being made, a temporary workshop solution was also used. To prevent the resin used for bonding from sticking to the final rod, an auxiliary piece was made in aluminium and removed once the work was finished.
With the mechanical recovery complete, the movement was reassembled, lubricated, regulated and put through running tests. Only after confirming that it kept time steadily did the group consider the restoration finished.
From a technical point of view, the intervention sought to preserve as many of the original components as possible. The aim was not to modernise the clock but to give it back the conditions it needed to fulfil once more the function for which it had been built.
The clock runs again
After about a year of work, the clock was set running again. Only after checking that the mechanism was working regularly did the members of the Untergunther report the completion of the intervention to the Panthéon's administration.
The authorities' reaction was not what the group had expected. Rather than accept the restoration, the monument's administration rejected the unauthorised intervention and filed a complaint. The mechanism was later stopped by the authorities themselves, and legal proceedings were brought against those who had taken part in the operation.
Whatever the legal assessment of the case, it had been shown that a monumental clock stopped for several decades could run again after a restoration carried out according to traditional clockmaking practice. Since then, the legality of the intervention and its technical merit have been discussed as separate questions.
The court case
After the group revealed the existence of the workshop and the completed restoration, the Centre des monuments nationaux (CMN), the body responsible for the Panthéon in Paris, filed a complaint against those who had taken part in the intervention. The case concerned the entry into the monument and the damage allegedly caused to an outside padlock while gaining access to the building. The CMN also claimed compensation for the losses it considered had resulted from the group's actions.
The trial took place in November 2007. The court acquitted the members of the Untergunther of the charges brought against them, finding that the facts alleged did not justify a conviction on the terms in which the charges had been framed. The CMN's claim for compensation was also rejected.
The court's decision was not an endorsement of the unauthorised intervention. It merely assessed the facts set out in the case. Even so, the case drew international attention because it involved an unusual situation: a group of people taken to court for restoring a historic clock that had stood still for several decades.
An unexpected outcome
After the trial, the clock stopped working again for a few years. Meanwhile, Jean-Baptiste Viot carried on his professional work in monumental clockmaking and the restoration of historic pieces.
In 2018, more than a decade after the events, the Panthéon in Paris decided to launch a new restoration campaign for the clock. The tender was won by none other than Jean-Baptiste Viot, who thus became the restorer officially responsible for the mechanism he had clandestinely brought back to life years earlier. The work restored not only the movement but also the dial and the striking system, returning the whole ensemble to regular operation.
This outcome closed an unusual episode in the recent history of monumental clockmaking. The same professional who had been taken to court for his part in an unauthorised intervention was later chosen by the administration to carry out the official restoration of the clock.
A touch of reality...
The story of the Panthéon clock in Paris should not be read as a defence of unauthorised interventions. Heritage conservation requires a legal framework, technical documentation and the involvement of the bodies responsible for cultural property.
Nevertheless, this episode highlights another problem: the lack of maintenance of many monumental clocks. These mechanisms were designed to run for centuries, but they depend on periodic inspection, cleaning, lubrication and repairs carried out by qualified professionals. When that maintenance stops, deterioration speeds up and the cost of recovery rises.
In Portugal there are still dozens of tower, church and public-building clocks that represent an important technical heritage. Many are still running thanks to the regular work of specialist clockmakers; others have stood still for years, awaiting an intervention.
However one judges the actions of the Untergunther, the case of the Panthéon in Paris is a reminder that a historic clock only fully fulfils its purpose when it goes on keeping time. Preserving these mechanisms requires technical knowledge, continuity of maintenance and recognition of their value as cultural and horological heritage.
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