Musée de l’Armée - Invalides - Tombeau de Napoléon et Église du Dôme

The dome by J. Hardouin Mansart, built between 1679 and 1706 magnificently crowns the building. It is the finest dome ever built in France and its 107-metre-high lantern was re-gilded in 1989 for the bicentenary of the French Revolution. Twelve kilos were needed for this operation.
From the outside, you can admire the facade with its two arrangements (Doric and Corinthian) of architecture. Statues of Charlemagne and St Louis by Coysevox and N Coustou decorate the niches of the lower levels; on the level above stands 'Strength, Justice, and Temperance with Prudence' by Coysevox. Inside, beneath the dome, you can see the recently-restored large fresco by Charles de la Fosse depicting St Louis handing his sword to Christ. The Dôme Church became a military burial place. It houses the tombs of Turenne, Vauban, Foch, Lyautey as well as those of Joseph and Jérôme Bonaparte. In the crypt is the tomb of the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte I, made out of blocks of red porphyry standing on a base of green granite from the Vosges region.