Paris under Napoleon Each of the twelve arrondissements had its own mayor, but their power was limited to enforcing the decrees of Napoleon's ministers. After he crowned himself Emperor on December 2, 1804, Napoleon began a series of projects to make Paris into an imperial capital to rival ancient Rome. He built monuments to French military glory, including the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, the column in Place Vendôme, and the future church of the Madeleine, intended as a temple to military heroes; and began the Arc de Triomphe. To improve the circulation of traffic in central Paris, he built a wide new
First Cabinet of Napoleon I against it. At a session of the Senate on 28 Floréal year XII (18 May 1804) attended by Consul Charles-François Lebrun and all the ministers a motion was adopted in which Napoleon was declared hereditary Emperor of the French. The formal coronation ceremony was delayed until 11 Frimaire year XIII (2 December 1804), when Pope Pius VII attended and Napoleon crowned himself in the Notre Dame de Paris. Napoleon retained the ministers from the Consulate, but made various changes during his reign. He did not appoint a prime minister, but headed the government himself. The ministers were: In March 1814