Louis XV laid the first stone of La Madeleine in 1763. Pierre Contant d'Ivry's first design proposed a large dome on a Latin-cross plan. His pupil Guillaume-Martin Couture abandoned it for a simpler classical temple. The Revolution halted work in 1789, with only the foundations and portico finished. In 1806 Napoleon declared the building a Temple to the Glory of the Grand Army and chose Pierre-Alexandre Vignon's design. Vignon died in 1828, and Jacques-Marie Huvé designed the interior, a single nave without a transept.
The church is modeled on a peripteral Greek temple, with columns on all four sides. Fifty-two Corinthian columns, each 66 feet (20 m) high, surround it. It is 354 feet (108 m) long and 141 feet (43 m) wide.
The pediment sculpture, The Last Judgement, is by Philippe Joseph Henri Lemaire. The church was consecrated on July 24, 1842, and Aristide Cavaillé-Coll built its organ in 1845.
Comments