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Key figures

Origin and history

The Army Museum was born in 1905 from the fusion of the Artillery Museum and the Army Historical Museum. It preserves nearly 500,000 works covering military history, from prehistory to today, and is the guardian of Napoleon I's tomb. Located in the Hôtel des Invalides, founded by Louis XIV in 1684 to welcome disabled soldiers, it gathers collections of weapons, armor, uniforms, artillery, emblems, and ethnographic objects, enriched by Napoleonic conquests, private donations and public funds such as those of the Arsenal of Strasbourg or the Dukes of Bouillon and Condé.

The origin of the collections dates back to 1684, when the Marshal d'Humières formed a model repository at the Arsenal, later developed by the general of Gribeauval. Dispersed in 1789, this collection was reconstructed by Régnier and transferred in 1871 to the Invalides. The museum was subsequently enriched by collections such as Napoleon III, General Vanson, the Brunon brothers, or the painter Édouard Detaille. The latest renovations (1990-2010) opened the unusual offices (2015) and the documentation centre (2018).

The museum occupies 30,000 m2 and offers a chronological route (from the 13th century to 1945), thematic spaces such as the Charles de Gaulle historic, and open-air exhibitions in the courtyard of honour. It also houses the church of the Dome, the cathedral of Saint-Louis, and various collections: antique weapons, royal armor, memories of Napoleon I, 19th-century uniforms, and iconographic backgrounds (paintings, prints, photographs). Some rooms, such as the large living room or the governors' vault, are only accessible during exceptional events.

The Hôtel des Invalides, the masterpiece of Louis XIV, remains a high place of national memory, hosting official ceremonies and nearly four million annual visitors. Although transformed into a military pantheon in the 19th century, he retained his hospital vocation within the National Institution of Invalides. The musée de l'Armée, labeled Musée de France, shares its ticket with the museums of the Order of Liberation and the Plans-Reliefs, although they are not under its management.

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