Napoleon's tombSunday June 13
Les Invalides / Viaduct des Arts
Like your marble, your tombs big and less than huge crowds,
then the gold capped Les Invalides could be for you. The architecture and sheer
size of Les Invalides is both impressive by design and overwhelming in grandeur.
Les Invalides was built by Louis the 14th as a military hospital for his wounded
soldiers. Its large church, golden dome and its sheer imposing size makes Les
Invalides a masterpiece of French classical architecture.
The Musée de L'Armée at Les Invalides houses the Tomb of
Napoleon, arguably the greatest Frenchman that ever lived. Suitable, the museum
also contains a history of the Army of France. Napoléon died in 1821 on the
island of St Helena whilst in exile. Napoléon's tomb is made of red porphyry
with a green granite base which is circled by a crown of laurels and
inscriptions of his victories.
The Viaduc used to be an abandoned, crumbling, decaying
19th-century railroad viaduct. Now it is a thriving 21st-century combination of
shops and parkland. Even on the coldest days the shops and the Promenade were
alive with people. The shops are tucked into the handsome orange-red brick
arches that are reminiscent of the famous Place des Vosges located close by. The
shops sell mostly antiques, art and craft some of which is made on the premises.
Les Invalides
Les Invalides, officially known as L'Hôtel national des Invalides (The National
Residence of the Invalids), 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 burial site for some of France's
war heroes, notably Napoleon Bonaparte (lists below).
Louis XIV initiated the project by an order dated November 24, 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 suburban in the seventeenth century. By the time the enlarged
project was completed in 1676, the river front measured 196 metres 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. The
chapel is known as Eglise Saint-Louis des Invalides. Daily attendance was
required.
Shortly after the veterans' chapel was completed, Louis XIV had Mansart
construct a separate private royal chapel, often referred to as the Église du
Dôme from its most striking feature (ill. right). Inspired by St. Peter's
Basilica in Rome the original for all Baroque domes, it is one of the triumphs
of French Baroque architecture. Mansart raises his drum with an attic storey
over its main cornice, and employs the paired columns motif in his more
complicated rhythmic theme. The general programme is sculptural but tightly
integrated, rich but balanced, consistently carried through, capping its
vertical thrust firmly with a ribbed and hemispherical dome. The domed chapel is
centrally placed to dominate the court of honour. It was finished in 1708.
The interior of the dome (illustration, right) was painted by Le Brun's disciple
Charles de La Fosse (1636–1716) with a Baroque illusion of space seen from below
(sotto in su perspective, the Italians were calling it). The painting was
completed in 1705.
On the north front of Les Invalides Hardouin-Mansart's chapel dome is large
enough to dominate the long facade yet harmonizes with Libéral Bruant's door
under an arched pediment. To the north the courtyard (cour d'honneur), is
extended by a wide public esplanade (Esplanade des Invalides) where the
embassies of Austria and Finland are neighbours of the French Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, all forming one of the grand open spaces in the heart of Paris.
At its far end, the Pont Alexandre III links this grand urbanistic axis with the
Petit Palais and the Grand Palais. (the Pont des Invalides is next, downstream
the Seine river). The Hôpital des Invalides spurred William III of England to
emulation, in the military Greenwich Hospital of 1694.
The buildings still comprise the Institution Nationale des Invalides (official
site), a national institution for disabled war veterans. The institution
comprises:
•
a retirement home
•
a medical and surgical centre
•
a centre for external medical consultations.
The most notable tomb at Les Invalides is that of Napoleon Bonaparte
(1769–1821). Napoleon was initially interred on Saint Helena, but King
Louis-Philippe arranged for his remains to be brought to St Jerome's Chapel in
Paris in 1840, in what became known as the retour des cendres. A renovation of
Les Invalides took many years, but in 1861 Napoleon was moved to the most
prominent location under the dome at Les Invalides.
A popular tourist site today, Les Invalides is also the burial site for some of
Napoleon's family, for several military officers who served under him, and other
French military heroes.
Click here to see other pictures.
Napoleon's tomb
Click here to see other pictures.
The Viaduc used to be an abandoned, crumbling, decaying
19th-century railroad viaduct. Now it is a thriving 21st-century combination of
shops and parkland. Even on the coldest days the shops and the Promenade were
alive with people. The shops are tucked into the handsome orange-red brick
arches that are reminiscent of the famous Place des Vosges located close by. The
shops sell mostly antiques, art and craft some of which is made on the premises.
Click here to see other pictures.
Click here to see other pictures.