Madeleine Paris

Designed along the lines of the Maison Carree at Nimes, the Madeleine was built by order of Napoleon in honour of the Grand Army. He had a previous building, which had never been completed, demolished and in 1806 commissioned the architect Vignon to construct it. In 1814 it became a church and was dedicated to St Mary Magdalene. It has the form and structure of a classical Greek temple: a wide base, with a stairway and a colonnade of 52 Corinthian columns 65 feet high. The pediment has a huge frieze sculpted by Lemaire in 1834 and depicting the Last Judgment.

Interior. The building is without aisles. In the vestibule are two groups of sculpture by Pradier and Rude. Above the high altar is a work by Marochetti (Assumption of St Mary Magdalene).





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