L'église de la Madeleine, L'église Sainte-Marie-Madeleine, or simply La Madeleine, is a church dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene in Paris. It was designed as a classical temple - to the glory of Napoleon's army.

Two false starts were made on building a church on the site. The first design, commissioned in 1757 with construction beginning in 1764, was by Pierre Contant d'Ivry, and was based on Mansart's Late Baroque church of Les Invalides, with a dome surmounting a Latin cross.

In 1777 d'Ivry died and he was replaced by Guillaume-Martin Couture, who decided to start anew. He razed the incomplete construction and based his new design on the Roman Pantheon. At the start of the Revolution, however, only the foundations had been finished and work was discontinued, while debate simmered as to what purpose the building might serve in Revolutionary France: a library, a ballroom, and a marketplace were all suggested.

In 1806 Napoleon made his decision, commissioning Pierre-Alexandre Barthélémy Vignon to build a Temple de la Gloire de la Grande Armée (Temple to the Glory of the Great Army) based on the design of an antique temple. The existing foundations were again razed and work began anew.

With completion of the Arc de Triomphe in 1808, the original commemorative role for the temple was blunted. After the fall of Napoleon, with the Catholic reaction during the Restoration, King Louis XVIII determined that the structure would be used as a church. Vignon died in 1828 before completing the project and was replaced by Jacques-Marie Huvé. In 1837 it was briefly suggested that the building might best be utilised as a train station, but the building was finally consecrated as a church in 1842.

Today, the Madeleine is affiliated with a Benedictine abbey. Daily masses, concerts and the most fashionable of weddings in Paris. A simpler crypt offers more intimate weekday masses.

view official website for the Église de la Madeleine (in french).
view the more information on the Église de la Madeleine (in english).