Les Invalides Paris

Stretching between Place Vauban and the Esplanade des Invalides, this vast complex of buildings includes the Hotel des Invalides, the Dome and the church of St Louis.

The whole construction, which Louis XIV ordered built and the commission for which was given to Liberal Bruant in 1671, was designed as a refuge for old and invalid soldiers, who were then often forced to beg for a living. The vast square of the Esplanade (1704 1720) is 520 yards long and 270 yards wide, creating perfect surroundings for the Hotel. In the garden in front of the Hotel bronze cannon of the 1 71h and 18th century are lined up, eighteen pieces belonging to the "triumphal battery", which are fired only on important occasions. At the sides of the entrance are two German tanks captured in 1944. The facade, 643 feet long, has four orders of windows and a majestic portal in the centre, surmounted by a relief representing Louis XIV with Prudence and Justice at his sides. In the courtyard, the four sides consist of two levels of arcades, and the pavilion at the end becomes the facade of the church of St Louis. In the centre is the statue by Seurre depicting Napoleon (previously on top of the Vendome Column). I he church of St Louis desInvalides, designed by Hardouin Mansart, has three aisles. Many flags hang from its walls. In a chapel called the Napoleon Chapel, at the end of the right aisle, are kept the carriage on which the remains of the Emperor were carried for burial on St Helena and the sarcophagus in which his body was brought back to France in 1840. In the crypt Rouget de Lisle, author of the Marseillaise, is also buried. The crypt (closed to the public) contains the tombs of many French marshals (Jourdan, Oudinot, MacMahon, Canrobert).





Hisory of France | France Culture | France Map| Paris| The Eiffel Tower| Notre-Dame| Palais De Justice| Sainte Chapelle| St-Jacques Tower| The Louvre| Carrousel Arch| St-Eustache| Place Vendome| Opera| Madeleine| Place De La Concorde| Champs Elysees| Arc of Triumph| Alexandre III Bridge| Les Invalides| Tomb of Nepoleon| Military Academy| Palais De Chaillot| Palais Bourbon| St-Germain-Des-Pres| St - Sulfice| Luxembourg| Montparnasse| Museum| Pantheon| St-Etienne-Du-Mont| Place Des Vosges| Place De La Bastille| Montmartre| Sacre Cceur

Marseille| Grenoble| Nice| Montpellier| Bordeaux| Lyon| Le havre| Strasbourg| Tours|