Yamoussoukro is the birthplace of Côte d'Ivoire's founding president, Félix Houphouët-Boigny, and in 1983 he decided to make his birthplace the new capital. Construction on the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace of Yamoussoukro, the largest church on earth, started 28 years ago. The basilica took $300 million and five years to build. It was to be the first of a number of major building projects in the new capital.
Unfortunately economic collapse brought an end to Houphouët-Boigny's dream of grandeur. Today the church, modeled directly after St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, hosts a tiny congregation of no more than a few hundred people, though it was built to seat 7,000.
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