Musée de l'Armée (Hôtel des Invalides)

The Musée de l'Armée at the Hôtel des Invalides in Paris's 7th arrondissement is one of the largest and most comprehensive military history museums in the world, holding over 500,000 objects spanning armour, weaponry, uniforms, paintings, maps, and campaign memorabilia from the Middle Ages through to World War II. The Hôtel des Invalides was founded by Louis XIV in 1670 as a hospice and retirement home for veteran soldiers — a function the complex partly retains — and its ensemble of buildings, arcaded courtyards, and the gilded dome of the Église du Dôme constitutes one of the most imposing architectural statements in Paris. The museum is organised into several chronological and thematic wings. The medieval and Renaissance arms and armour galleries display full equestrian and foot-soldier assemblies of exceptional quality covering the 13th through 17th centuries. The Département Moderne covers the reign of Louis XIV through the Napoleonic Wars, with particular depth in 18th-century uniforms and the Grande Armée's campaign equipment including personal items linked to Napoleon's major campaigns. The Département Contemporain addresses the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, World War I — including large-format dioramas, relief maps, and trench reconstructions — and World War II. The single most visited element is the tomb of Napoleon I, housed in the circular crypt of the Église du Dôme and encased in six nested coffins of tin, mahogany, lead, ebony, oak, and red quartzite porphyry. The porphyry sarcophagus rests on a green granite base at the centre of the crypt, ringed by twelve colossal statues representing Napoleon's military victories. The dome above, gilded during a restoration in 1989, remains one of the most recognisable features of the Paris skyline. Entry to the tomb is included in the standard museum ticket. A separate section, the Musée des Plans-Reliefs, displays strategic scale models of fortified French cities commissioned from the 17th century onward for military planning — an often-overlooked highlight of the complex.