Which neoclassical church in Paris was originally a temple to the Grande Armée?

La Madeleine was the neoclassical Paris church originally planned as a temple to the glory of Napoleon’s Grande Armée. Its monumental, column-wrapped form reflects that military purpose before the building ultimately became a Catholic church dedicated to Mary Magdalene.

Construction began under Louis XV in 1763, but the French Revolution halted the project. Napoleon later ordered the unfinished structure redesigned as a military monument, envisioning a temple displaying the glory of France’s armies. The design by Pierre-Alexandre Vignon followed the appearance of an ancient Roman or Greek temple rather than a conventional church.

After Napoleon’s fall in 1814, the project returned to a religious function. Work continued under the Bourbon Restoration and July Monarchy, and La Madeleine was inaugurated as a church in 1842. Its 52 Corinthian columns, each about 20 metres high, surround all four sides. The building is sometimes confused with the Panthéon, but the Panthéon was conceived as a church and later became a secular mausoleum.