|
Invalides & Napoleon's Tomb
The group of buildings
'Hotel des Invalids' was ordered by Louis XIV the ('Sun
King') to house the king's old soldiers. A year later he commissioned
the Eglise du Dome, a magnificent Baroque church with its beautiful
gold-leafed dome, which holds the impressive tomb of Napoleon. Napoleon
was brought here from his grave in St. Helena where he was exiled,
to fulfill his last wish to be buried 'on the banks of the Seine among
the people of France whom I have loved so much. In the complex is
the Army Museum with the largest collection of militia in the world.
Leading from the impressive forecourt of the Invalids with its captured
canons runs the tree-lined Esplanade des Invalides to the grand Pont
Alexandre III a gift from Czar Alexander to commemorate the 1892 French-Russian
alliance.
U.N.E.S.C.O
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
Visitors are welcome and it often hosts exhibitions. In the outer
courtyard are sculptures by Henri Moore, James Calder, and Giacometti;
inside there is a painting by Picasso, ‘The Fall of Icharus’,
and a tapestry by the architect Le Corbusier. There is also a lovely
Japanese garden and meditation area. By the garden is an angel from
the façade of a Nagasaki church destroyed by the atomic bomb
during WWII.
Bourdelle Museum
Housed around a small garden and including the artist’s studio
and apartments, it is devoted to Rodin’s pupil Antoine Bourdelle,
who, among other works, created the Modernist relief friezes at
the Theatre des Champs Elysees.
Continued...
|
