Church of the Madeleine in Paris from the Place de la Concorde, taking the Rue Royale, you get to this particular church surrounded by columns that looks more like a Greek temple.

This church is located in a unique place in the heart of Paris, overlooking the Faubourg Saint Honoré and the big boulevards. The tourist who arrives at the Church of the Madeleine on the Rue Royale from the Place de la Concorde, is a building that looks like nothing other churches in Paris, because of its unusual neo-classical architectural style. It is often similar to other buildings at the same time as the Pantheon or the National Assembly.

The history of the Church of the Madeleine in Paris is long and complicated given that its construction lasted for almost 80 years in which there were various political and ideological changes. Designed originally to meet a growing number of faithful, Louis XV posed the first stone in 1765 and elected Contant d’Ivry architect. Works had already begun when his death came in 1777 and his student and successor, Guillaume-Martin Couture, completely changed the project, perhaps influenced by Soufflot by then faced the building of the Church of St. Genevieve (Pantheon). So, Couture suggests a Greek cross church instead of Latin, with large portico of Corinthian columns and a huge dome.When the Revolution broke out, the construction had advanced to the height of the capitals of the columns. But the timing was clearly not conducive to building a church and the work stopped until 1804.

Meanwhile, several architects proposed building for different purposes: a grand palace to house the National Convention, a temple to the Revolution (near the guillotine was in the Place de la Concorde), a national library or an opera.

In 1806 a decree was the property to the Bank of France, the Commercial Court and the Paris Bourse. For the project was called Pierre-Alexandre Vignon, but never materialized. Later that same year, Napoleon signed a decree providing for the construction of a temple to the glory of the French army. There were more than 80 projects to the contest, including Napoleon chose to Vignon, a peripteral inspired by Greco-Roman architecture.

In 1807 the work faces Vignon demolishing almost everything but recovering existing columns. In the fall of Napoleon in 1815, Louis XVIII decided to give the building a sacrificial religious character, recalling the Bourbons guillotined in the Place de la Concorde. The idea was discarded when it was concluded in 1826 a chapel for this purpose in the Place Louis XVI.

Vignon died in 1828 and continued the work HUVE despite economic difficulties. In 1830, the July Monarchy again predicted a shrine of national reconciliation. The work continued with sculptures and bas-reliefs that adorn the church, in which many artists took part: Lemaire, Ziegler, Marochetti, Rude, Pradier, among others. The bronze door was the work of Henri de Triqueti.

Finally the church was inaugurated on 24 July 1842, the day of St. Mary Magdalene, but only in 1846 installed the great Cavaillé-Coll organ in 1893 and concluded Lamaire the apse mosaic …