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Hôtel des Invalides

Hôtel des Invalides
Invalides aerial view.jpg
Aerial view of Les Invalides
Les Invalides is located in Paris
Les Invalides
Location within Paris
Alternative names Les Invalides, Musée de l'Armée
General information
Type Museum, church, hospital, retirement home, mausoleum
Architectural style Baroque
Location Paris, France
Coordinates 48°51′18″N 2°18′45″E / 48.85500°N 2.31250°E / 48.85500; 2.31250Coordinates: 48°51′18″N 2°18′45″E / 48.85500°N 2.31250°E / 48.85500; 2.31250
Construction started 1671
Inaugurated 1678
Design and construction
Architect Libéral Bruant, Jules Hardouin-Mansart
Website
www.invalides.org

Les Invalides (French pronunciation: ​[lezɛ̃valid]), commonly known as Hôtel national des Invalides (The National Residence of the Invalids), or also as Hôtel des Invalides, is a complex of buildings in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France, containing museums and monuments, all relating to the military history of France, as well as a hospital and a retirement home for war veterans, the building's original purpose. The buildings house the Musée de l'Armée, the military museum of the Army of France, the Musée des Plans-Reliefs, and the Musée d'Histoire Contemporaine, as well as the Dôme des Invalides, a large church with the burial site for some of France's war heroes, most notably Napoleon Bonaparte.

Louis XIV initiated the project by an order dated 24 November 1670, as a home and hospital for aged and unwell soldiers: the name is a shortened form of hôpital des invalides. The architect of Les Invalides was Libéral Bruant. The selected site was in the then suburban plain of Grenelle (plaine de Grenelle). By the time the enlarged project was completed in 1676, the river front measured 196 metres (643 ft) and the complex had fifteen courtyards, the largest being the cour d'honneur ("court of honour") for military parades. It was then felt that the veterans required a chapel. Jules Hardouin-Mansart assisted the aged Bruant, and the chapel was finished in 1679 to Bruant's designs after the elder architect's death. This chapel was known as Église Saint-Louis des Invalides, and daily attendance of the veterans in the church services was required.


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