La Madeleine

Church · La Madeleine (8th)Paris,France

A Roman temple of fifty-two columns in Paris with no cross or spire, begun as a church and finished as one after Napoleon's monument lapsed.

La Madeleine is a Roman temple that works as a parish church. Fifty-two Corinthian columns run right around it, and nothing outside says church: no tower, no spire, no cross. Louis XV began a church on this ground in 1757 and the Revolution left it half-built. In a decree of December 1806 Napoleon took the site for a monument to his army, had the unfinished church pulled down and handed the work to Pierre-Alexandre Vignon, whose temple is the building standing here now. Napoleon's Empire fell before the temple was done, and the shell was finished as a parish church in the 1840s rather than a monument to his army. So you climb steps meant for a war monument and walk into a working parish church. Aristide Cavaillé-Coll built the organ in 1846, and Saint-Saëns, Théodore Dubois and Fauré all worked here as parish organist. Inside it is one long room, so the whole church is in front of you the moment you step through the door. Step back out and the flower sellers are working the square at the foot of the steps.

Worth knowing

Good to know

Come when the sun is high — The only daylight falls straight down out of the three domes, so around midday the middle of the floor is lit and the side walls go almost black.
The organ is a working one — Cavaillé-Coll's 1846 instrument still serves the parish and the church keeps a concert programme, so you may walk in on a rehearsal rather than silence.
This is a parish, not a monument — Mass and funerals happen during visiting hours; when a service starts, people stay at the back and stop moving about.

Things to do

1
Find the line where the light stops
Stand under the middle dome and look at the floor. The daylight comes down in a column and ends on the marble in a clear edge. Walk sideways out of it and you are in near-darkness within a few steps. No other church in Paris is lit like this, because no other one was built without windows in its walls.
2
Read the pediment from the bottom of the steps
The relief across the front shows the Last Judgement, with Christ at the centre and Mary Magdalene kneeling at his feet to intercede. Under it the Latin inscription dedicates the building to her. From the pavement you see the whole composition; from the top of the steps you cannot see it at all.
3
Listen to the organ, whatever is being played
The Cavaillé-Coll organ stands at the west end above the door. Rehearsals, recitals and services all take place in ordinary daytime hours, and the sound carries differently here, because the walls have no windows and three domes sit over the single hall. Sit near the middle rather than the front.