Hôtel des Invalides began as a home and hospital for veterans, then grew into a military museum and memorial complex. Its gilded Dome holds Napoleon’s tomb, while the Institution Nationale des Invalides continues the site’s founding work of caring for people affected by war.
Quick facts
Louis XIV ordered the Hôtel des Invalides in 1670; its first residents arrived in 1674.
Parisian crowds seized artillery and firearms at the Invalides on July 14, 1789, before going on to the Bastille.
Napoleon’s remains were placed in the Dôme des Invalides on April 2, 1861, after returning from Saint Helena in 1840.
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The gold dome of Hôtel des Invalides is easy to read as a monument to Napoleon. The wider complex tells a longer story: it was built as a place of care and work for soldiers disabled, wounded, sick, or old after military service, and part of that mission continues today. The site lies in Paris’s 7th arrondissement, near the Seine. “Hôtel” here means a substantial institution or residence, not a modern hotel.
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