Michael Taylor

The Hôtel des Invalides, an emblematic monument of the Parisian townscape and a major creation of the 17th century, is one of the French capital's most frequented sites with over one million isitors each year. Renowned for its magnificent gilded dame, the building was designed on orders of Louis XIV to shelter invalid soldiers. It took the architects, Libéral Bruant and later Jules Hardouin-Mansart, thirty-five years to complete.
At the centre of this vast complex stands the Church of Saint-Louis - a cathedral once dedicated to soldiers - and a lavish royal chapel, the Dôme. Little by little, the church, which was renamed the "Temple of Mars" in the French Revolution, became a military pantheon. The monumental tomb of Napoleon I was built under the Dôme.