A Look At Napolean's Tomb, Invalides, Paris
Napoleon's tomb is the monument erected at Les Invalides in Paris to keep the mortal remains of Napoleon following their repatriation to France from Saint Helena in 1840, or retour des cendres, at the initiative of Louis Philippe I and his minister Adolphe Thiers. While the tomb's planning started in 1840, it was only completed two decades later and inaugurated by Napoleon III on 2 April 1861, after its promoter Louis Philippe I, architect Louis Visconti and main sculptors James Pradier and Pierre-Charles Simart had all died in the meantime.
On 2 April 1861, Napoleon's remains were finally transferred into the sarcophagus from the nearby chapel of Saint-Jérôme, where they had lain since 1840. The ceremony was somewhat subdued, with only the Emperor Napoleon III, Empress Eugénie, the Prince Imperial Napoléon Eugène, other related princes, government ministers and senior officials of the crown being present.
The tombs of Napoleon's brothers were completed shortly afterwards, also in the Dome church, namely that of Jérôme Bonaparte in 1862 and that of Joseph Bonaparte in 1864.
On 15 December 1940, the coffin of Napoleon II was translated from Vienna to be placed next to his father's, following a decision made by Adolf Hitler upon advice from his ambassador to France Otto Abetz. Intended to boost support for collaboration in the French public, that initiative ended up precipitating a political crisis in Vichy and the abrupt dismissal of Pierre Laval by Philippe Pétain two days before the ceremony. On 18 December 1969, the coffin was transferred underground in the cella and covered by a marble slab.
In 2021, on the occasion of the second centenary of Napoleon's death, an installation titled Memento Marengo by French visual artist Pascal Convert was placed above the sarcophagus of Napoleon. It is a copy in synthetic materials of the skeleton of Napoleon's favorite horse Marengo, which is preserved as a war trophy (following Marengo's capture at the Battle of Waterloo) at the National Army Museum in London. The arrangement has generated controversy despite its temporary nature