Les Invalides

Why go

Les Invalides gives military history a physical setting: a long façade, cour d'honneur, domed church and tombs occupy one planned ensemble. Napoleon's tomb is the headline, but the complex also connects the Revolution, the Dreyfus affair and the continuing institution for disabled veterans. Allow time to distinguish the Dôme, Saint-Louis and the museum.

What to look for

• The Dôme des Invalides rises above the long northern façade and court of honour.
• Napoleon's red quartzite tomb stands on a green granite base beneath the dome.
• Pont Alexandre III continues the major axis from the Esplanade des Invalides toward the Grand Palais.

The full story

Les Invalides was founded as a retirement home and hospital for military veterans, a purpose still visible in the scale and ordered plan of the complex. It became a stage for major French events: on 14 July 1789, crowds took weapons stored in its cellars before moving on to the Bastille; in 1894, Captain Alfred Dreyfus was publicly degraded before the building, and his rehabilitation ceremony followed in one of its courtyards in 1906. The site also changed from a veterans' institution into a centre of military memory. The Artillery Museum arrived in 1872, joined by the Historical Museum of the Armies in 1896, and they became the Army Museum in 1905. The churches explain the social order behind the architecture: Jules Hardouin-Mansart designed connected royal and veterans' chapels with separate entrances. Napoleon's burial beneath the Dôme later transformed that interior into a national memorial.

Useful to know

• Separate the Dôme, cathedral and museum in your plan; each has a distinct historical focus.
• Approach through the Esplanade des Invalides if continuing to Pont Alexandre III and the right bank.
• Set aside a longer visit if you want both the Army Museum and the tomb.

Your next visit

Estimated · Declared scenario and planning estimates; no live opening, weather, queue or booking service.