The Invalides

In 1670, Louis XIV - the Sun King - founded The Invalides. An old soldiers home, it was funded by a five year levy on the salaries of soldiers serving in the army at that time. The first stones were laid in 1671, for what was to become a complex, providing quarters for 4,000 persons.

Many of the arms used by the mob when it attacked the Bastille on 14 July 1789 were taken from The Invalides on the morning of that day. Roughly 28,000 arms were taken.

The most significant event in the history of Les Invalides, however, is unquestionably the return of the body of Napoléon in 1840, from St. Helena. On 8 October 1840 - 19 years after the death of the Emperor - the coffin was exhumed.

On 15 December 1840 a state funeral was held, and despite a winter snowstorm, the hearse proceeded from the Arc de Triomphe down the Champs-Elysées, across the Place de la Concorde to the Esplanade and finally to the cupola in St Jerome's Chapel until the tomb was completed. On 3 April 1861 Napoléon I came to his final rest in the crypt under the golden cupola.

text extract from www.paris.org - photo from www.atkielski.com

 

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