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
Napoleon I as Emperor Napoleon I as Emperor Napoleon I as Emperor, also known as Napoleon I in his Coronation Robes (French: "Portrait de l’empereur Napoléon Ier en robe de sacre") is an oil on canvas painting by the French artist François Gérard, produced in 1805 under the First French Empire. Gerard initially produced the painting as an official portrait of Napoleon I for his throne room at the Tuileries Palace. It was later moved to the Palace of Versailles. It spent time at in the Louvre Museum, at the Élysée Palace from 1849 to 1851 under the presidency of Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, then at