The monument to the glory of Turenne, drawn by Charles LeBrun and sculpted by Jean-Baptiste Tuby and Gaspard Marsy around 1680 was moved to the Lady Chapel of the Hôtel des Invalides'
Église du Dôme from the basilica of Saint-Denis on the occasion of the transfer of Turenne's body on September 22, 1800. Depicted dying in the arms of mortality, Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne (1611-1675), better known by his title vicomte de Turenne, was one of the greatest French military commanders. Beginning his military career in the Thirty Years' War, he subsequently commanded the royal armies in the civil war of the Fronde, in the French invasion of the Spanish Netherlands, and in the third Dutch War.
After King Louis-Philippe arranged for Napoléon Bonaparte's remains to be brought back to France in 1840, the Invalides was renovated by Viscanti. In 1861,
Napoléon was entombed under the dome, surrounded by a dozen Amazon-like figures representing his victories. The grave of the "King of Rome," his son by second wife Marie-Louise, lies at his feet. Surrounding Napoléon's Tomb are those of his brother,
Joseph Bonaparte;
Vauban, who built many of France's fortifications;
Marshal Ferdinand Foch, a World War I Allied commander;
Lyautey, field marshal of France.
The Hôtel des Invalides, or Les Invalides, was founded by royal decree in 1670 by Louis XIV to offer care and accomodation to wounded soldiers. Designed by architect Libéral Bruant in what was then fields outside of Paris, by the time the enlarged project was completed in 1676, the complex had fifteen courtyards, the largest being the cour d'honneur for military parades. In 1676, Jules Hardouin Mansart completed Bruant's designs for the Eglise Saint-Louis des Invalides, a chapel for the veterans.
Shortly after the veterans' chapel was completed, Louis XIV had Mansart construct a separate private royal chapel, the Église du Dôme, with a new new facade. Started in 1677, the main structure was completed by 1690, crowned with a gilded dome, although the finishing and interior painting by Charles de La Fosse dragged on until 1706. Inspired by St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, it is one of the triumphs of French Baroque and Jesuitic architecture. Additional buildings were added on the west side between 1747 and 1750 by Jules Robert de Cotte.
Today, on either side of the dome, Les Invalides still houses the Institution Nationale des Invalides, a national institution for disabled war veterans, as well as the Musée de l'Armée, the military museum of of the Army of France, which was established in 1905.
