A Walk Around Place Saint-Augustin, Paris

During the reign of Napoleon III in the 1850s and 60s Paris experienced a dramatic transformation under the direction of Georges-Eugène Haussmann. Haussmann cut many boulevards through the crowded, medieval city placing prominent public buildings at the boulevard ends to provide impressive vistas. The boulevard Malesherbes was laid out cutting northwest from La Madeleine. Saint-Augustin, close to the spot where Haussmann was born, was built to During the reign of Napoleon III in the 1850s and 60s Paris experienced a dramatic transformation under the direction of Georges-Eugène Haussmann. Haussmann cut many boulevards through the crowded, medieval city placing prominent public buildings at the boulevard ends to provide impressive vistas. The boulevard Malesherbes was laid out cutting northwest from La Madeleine. Saint-Augustin, close to the spot where Haussmann was born, was built to provide a counterpoint to the famous columns of La Madeleine at the other end of the boulevard. It was also designed to be visible from the Arc de Triomphe down the avenue de Friedland. The chosen site, an odd shaped lot at the intersection of four streets, and the need for a dome of 200 feet so as to be visible from the Arc de Triomphe, dictated unusual proportions for the building. The church was designed by Haussmann's fellow Protestant, architect Victor Baltard who also famously designed Les Halles markets. While Baltard's use of iron in Saint-Augustin's structure is praised for its inventiveness, at least one critic has described the church as, "an eyesore: ridiculously sited, without proportion, crushed beneath an outsized dome." The neighborhood around the church is now one of the most expensive in Paris.