The story of this place
Napoleon Bonaparte died in exile on Saint Helena in 1821, but in 1840 King Louis-Philippe orchestrated the retour des cendres—the return of the ashes. On 15 December 1840 the emperor's remains processed through Paris in freezing weather before a million mourners, reaching Les Invalides, Louis XIV's veterans' hospital of 1670. His body rests in a red quartzite sarcophagus set within six nested coffins, sunk into an open crypt beneath the gilded Dôme des Invalides. Around him lie his son the Aiglon, brothers Joseph and Jérôme, and marshals. The complex also houses the Musée de l'Armée, one of the world's great military museums.