Madeleine: station history
Served by: metro lines 8, 12 and 14.
Did you know?
Served by lines 8, 12 and 14, on the border of the 1st and 8th arrondissements, the station lies under place de la Madeleine, at the centre of which stands the church. Its name also recalls a small 6th-century village, La Ville-l'Évêque, whose chapel was dedicated to Saint Mary Magdalene in the 13th century. Line 14 opened there on 15 October 1998, with its first section, following Bernard Kohn's architectural principles: light concrete vault, marble walls, wooden seats.
Anecdote
The corridors hold three artworks: « La Prière », a reproduction made in 2000 of a 1907 sculpture by Constantin Brâncuși; « Ryaba la Poule » (Ryaba the Hen), a 40 m² stained-glass window of 20 panels by Ivan Loubennikov, installed in 2009, in exchange for which the Île-de-France transport authorities gave the Moscow metro a Guimard edicule, installed at Kievskaya; and « Tissignalisation no 14 » by Jacques Tissinier, a thousand 16 cm enamelled steel discs depicting stylised papyrus leaves. Until the 1980s or so, line 12 had an entirely blue decoration, unique on the network.
Audio guide
La Madeleine: Napoleon's project
The Church of the Madeleine is a Catholic parish church located on the Place de la Madeleine. It is an illustration of the neo-classical architectural style. Designed by Napoleon I as a Greek temple dedicated to the glory of his Grand Army, the project was finally abandoned and the building was almost transformed in 1837 into a railway station before becoming a church in 1845. Napoleon I is represented in a very spectacular and unique way for a religious building. It appears on the large fresco that adorns the cul-de-oven of the choir (the apse), painted between 1835 and 1837 by Jules-Claude Ziegler, a student of Ingres.
Napoleon's project, in 1806, was a "temple to the glory of the Grande Armée", designed by Pierre-Alexandre Vignon: a classical temple surrounded by Corinthian columns. Louis XVIII took over the construction site in 1814 and Jacques-Marie Huvé completed it after Vignon's death in 1828. The building is 108 m long, with 52 Corinthian columns of about 20 m. The bronze doors carry the Ten Commandments, by Henri de Triqueti; the organ of Cavaillé-Coll (1845) had Saint-Saëns and Fauré as holders.
Anecdote: Chopin's funeral took place at the Madeleine on October 30, 1849, after nearly two weeks of waiting.
Maxim's, the Belle Epoque spirit
Maxim's was born from an ambitious waiter… and an Italian glacier.
In 1893, Maxime Gaillard, a former coffee boy, bought a modest establishment on 3 rue Royale, run by an ice cream merchant. The small bistro will be a spectacular success with the arrival at its head of Eugène Cornuché, who appeals to the artists of the School of Nancy. Inspired by the Lorraine flora and fauna, the decoration became, for the Universal Exhibition of 1900, a masterpiece of Art Nouveau. The All-Paris of the Belle Époque rushes to it.
The place has its legends. In the 1970s, Brigitte Bardot caused a scandal by going barefoot. As for Pierre Cardin, he would have been refused entry because of his outfit... before buying the restaurant in 1981! He set up a museum on the floors dedicated to Art Nouveau.
Classified as a historical monument, Maxim's remains one of the most famous tables in the world.
Around Madeleine
- Église de la Madeleine, 20 m away — A neoclassical church shaped like a Greek temple, completed in 1842, known for its monumental architecture and concerts.
- Ladurée, 180 m away — The house began in 1862 as a bakery founded on rue Royale by Louis Ernest Ladurée. Jules Chéret decorated the pastry shop rebuilt after the fire of 1871: his cherubs became its emblem. The double macaron filled with ganache was devised by his cousin Pierre Desfontaines.
- Fauchon, 70 m away — A luxury food shop founded in 1886, a Parisian institution of fine gastronomy on Place de la Madeleine.
- Place Vendôme, 450 m away — A 17th-century royal square lined with prestigious jewellers, dominated by the Vendôme column erected by Napoleon.