Musée de l’Armée, military museum at Les Invalides since 1905

The Musée de l’Armée was born in 1905 at the Hôtel des Invalides, on rue de Grenelle, from the merger of the Artillery Museum and the Historical Museum of the Army. The first, created during the Revolution, moved to Les Invalides in 1872; the second was founded in 1896 by the society La Sabretache, chaired by the painter Édouard Detaille.

The museum stayed open during the First World War and grew with objects from the Great War. In June 1940 the lorries carrying its most precious pieces were attacked near Étampes; the occupiers later shipped cannon, uniforms and relics of Napoleon to Germany. Almost everything has since been recovered.

From 1994, then under the Athena renovation plan begun in 2000, the galleries were redone. The underground Historial Charles de Gaulle opened in 2008, and the museum of the Order of Liberation reopened restored in 2015.

In the 7th arrondissement, the museum fills the wings around the main courtyard: ancient arms and armour, the years from Louis XIV to Napoleon III, and the two world wars. The Dôme des Invalides has held Napoleon’s tomb since 1840, with the mausoleums of Vauban and Turenne and the graves of Marshals Foch and Lyautey.