Dome

General wide angle lens view of the square, looking northeast, with Paris Opera at the left; In making these new roads Haussmann showed a constant concern for perspective and layout, creating the vast regulated thoroughfares that remain the main characteristic of the Second Empire works in Paris. The Boulevard Malesherbes, running north-west from La Madeleine, was itself broken up by the perspective created by the dome of St Augustin. Less felicitous, however, was the hemming in of the new Opéra by Charles Garnier (completed only in 1875) by ten avenues. Source: Grove Art Online; http://www.groveart.com/ (accessed 1/28/2008)