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
Coronation of Napoleon I Roman formula "Accipe coronam..." ("Receive the crown..."). This differed to the usage of the French royal coronations, in which both formulas - the Anglo-French "Coronet te Deus..." and the Roman "Accipe coronam regni..." - were recited successively. While the Pope recited the above-mentioned formula,Napoleon turned and removed his laurel wreath and crowned himself and then crowned the kneeling Joséphine with a small crown surmounted by a cross, which he had first placed on his own head. The omitted Roman formula "Accipe coronam...", which depicted the monarch as receiving his crown from the Church, would have clashed with Napoleon's decision to