La Madeleine is immediately recognizable by its fifty-two towering Corinthian columns, which wrap around the exterior like a marble forest and give the building the appearance of an ancient Greek temple rather than a Catholic church. This structure at the end of the Rue Royale stands as a monument to the shifting powers of French history, having been planned by King Louis XV, repurposed by Napoleon Bonaparte as a temple to the glory of his armies, and finally consecrated as a church in eighteen forty-two.
La Madeleine
religious
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