Musée de l'Armée - Invalides

The Musée de l'Armée, created in 1905, is located in the prestigious setting of the Hôtel National des Invalides. It was created in 1905 just after the World Fair and is the result of the merger of the Musée d'Artillerie, opened in 1796, and the old Musée de l'Armée created 100 years later. It extends over 8,000 m² and is made up of a museum and two churches with some 500,000 objects. This makes it the largest museum of military history in France, and one of the leading ones in the world. The permanent collections are presented chronologically in 'historical' collections representing time periods, from Antiquity to the end of the Second World War, and rounded off with objects belonging to a certain theme (emblems, paintings, military decorations...). These thematic collections are either presented in the historical exhibitions, or grouped together in specific areas. The Dome Church (designed by Jules Hardouin-Mansart), with its 107-metres-high lantern and huge fresco painted by Charles de La Fosse, had its dome given a new coat of gold leaf in 1989 for the bicentenary of the French Revolution (requiring 12 kg of gold). It was the fifth time it has been restored since it was created. The church is a real military pantheon, with monumental tombs containing Vauban's heart, the remains of Turenne and the heart of La Tour d'Auvergne; the Dome is also home to the tombs of the Emperor Napoleon I, his brothers Joseph and Jérome Bonaparte, his son, the King of Rome, generals Bertrand and Duroc and marshalls Foch and Lyautey.