On Wednesday, March 30, 1791, the crowd squeezed together outside the windows of 42 rue de la Chaussée-d’Antin. The street was closed to traffic. The great Mirabeau was dying. On the morning of Saturday, April 2nd, he passed away. Faced with rumors of poisoning, the authorities decided to organize a public autopsy. The next morning, a large tent was set up in the garden in front of 56 witnesses. They also needed to preserve a vestige of the most famous revolutionary of his time: a death mask was immediately made. The street was still full of people. The diagnosis was determined: it was Mirabeau’s heart that had given out. His cause of death was natural.
View of Mirabeau’s Casket, Placed in the Saint-Geneviève Vault on April 4, 1791
On April 4, 1791, i.e. only two days after Mirabeau’s death, his remains were carried in procession to the Saint-Geneviève church, which received its first Great Man. On the same day, the church became officially known as the Panthéon. However, three years later, on September 12, 1794, he was expelled: proof was found that he had betrayed the Revolution by conspiring on behalf of the king as of 1789.
