Chapel of Saint-Louis-de-la-Salpetriere, Paris

The Chapel of Saint-Louis-de-la-Salpetriere features a central Greek cross floor plan beneath a tall, octagonal lantern dome. Louis the Fourteenth ordered the construction of this structure to serve the thousands of impoverished women and patients housed in the surrounding Hôpital de la Salpêtrière. Architect Libéral Bruant designed the chapel so four independent chapels could simultaneously hold services for separate groups of the congregation, keeping the ailing, the elderly, and the healthy populations apart during mass while everyone heard the priest at the altar.