Four members of a secret organisation, known as the Undergunther, were released by the Paris Court of Justice on Friday 23 December. From September 2005 to September 2006 they had occupied the Panthéon, the famous cathedral in the Latin Quarter in Paris. Unbeknownst to the building’s administration they set up a secret workshop to repair the clock dating from 1850 under the supervision of a professional clockmaker, Jean-Baptiste Viot.

Lazar Kunstmann, a spokesperson for the Undergunther, told Le Monde: "The clock stopped working in 1965 and everyone ignored it. We repaired it before it was too late. In any other country, a monument such as the Panthéon would be maintained in a perfect state. But not in France. Here, if we hadn’t restored the clock, no one else would have bothered.”

The group revealed themselves only when they completed the revamp, deciding then to tell the Panthéon administration about their success. According to Mr Kunstmann, when the administrator saw the clock he had to take a deep breathe and sit down. The Cente of National Monuments was shocked by how the Undergunther managed to sneak into the Panthéon, fired the administrator and sued the restorers. They were facing a maximum sentence of one year in prison and a €15,000 fine.

Mr Kunstmann said that getting into the building was easy, as opening a lock is not a problem for a clockmaker. The team found a side entrance leading to the future hiding place at the top of the monument. Over the year they managed to furnish the place with chairs and connect it to the electricity grid.

The Undergunther is part of a bigger clandestine organisation, les UX. With about 150 members, it was unknown to the authorities until 2004, when an underground cinema under the Seine was discovered. Les UX is divided into teams, the Undergunther is responsible for doing restorations.

Its members include architects and historians who in the 80s and 90s were students in the Latin Quarter. As students they had secret parties in the tunnels of Paris. Now they want to use their knowledge to "restore invisible parts of national heritage."