Today, with its 52 Corinthian columns, it looks like a massive Greek temple! At the end of the XVIIIth and the beginning of the XIXth centuries, the plans for the construction of the Madeleine were constantly modified. It’s mainly for this reason that the building of the Church lasted some 85 years ! Six distinct periods of the construction can be identified from the laying of the foundation stone by King Louis XV in 1763 until the consecration of the church in 1843 :