Les Invalides is a vast block of buildings in Paris, containing museums and monuments celebrating France's military glory. It also played a significant role in the French Revolution. On July 14, 1789, before the storming of the Bastille fortress, a mob broke into Les Invalides and seized 32,000 rifles, which proved crucial in starting the fighting.
Originally designed as a hospital and retirement home for old and sick war veterans, the complex had 15 courtyards, the largest of which was set aside for military parades. Completed in the 17th century, the hospital could accommodate up to 4,000 veterans at a time. Some of France's greatest generals and war heroes are buried here, including Napoleon Bonaparte himself.
Napoleon's tomb in the Royal Chapel is a stand-alone attraction and is a quintessentially French interpretation of the Baroque, with a huge dome inspired by St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The interior of the dome is a sample of French mastery in the decorative arts, worked on by an army of painters and craftsmen. The sheer size of the dome and the sarcophagus beneath it clearly demonstrate Napoleon’s importance to the French nation. If you arrive late, around closing time, you may have a little more space to wander around and explore the site on your own.
Inside the museum, you will see the history of French power, arranged in a grand series of halls, rooms and galleries stretching from the Middle Ages to the present. Specialties include Renaissance armour for horses and men, as well as their helmets, spears, halberds and crossbows. Louis XIV’s campaigns as he sought to rule all of Europe are recorded in period maps, manuscripts and drawings. At its climax, the period of the French Revolution is depicted in the most dramatic and detailed way with flags and banners, cocked hats and guillotines.
The Napoleonic Wars are also represented by cannons taken from the battlefields and all the military might Napoleon was able to muster before his defeat at Waterloo by the Duke of Wellington and his ignominious fall from power into exile. The age of photography allows us to see how devastating the German attack on Paris was in 1871, where the newly built boulevards and their buildings stood in war ruins. World Wars I and II are also evoked through photography and modern film, which record the inhumanity of man to man.