It is adjacent to the Royal Chapel known as the Dôme des Invalides, the tallest church building in Paris at a height of 107 meters.

[2] Louis XIV initiated the project by an order dated 24 November 1670 to create a home and hospital for aged and disabled (invalide) soldiers, the veterans of his many military campaigns.

By the time the enlarged project was completed in 1676, the façade fronting the Seine measured 196 metres (643 ft) in width, and the complex had fifteen courtyards, the largest being the cour d'honneur designed for military parades.

Architectural historian Allan Braham has hypothesized that the domed chapel was initially intended to be a new burial place for the Bourbon Dynasty, but that project was not implemented.

The Dôme des Invalides remains as one of the prime exemplars of French Baroque architecture, at 107 metres (351 ft) high, and also as an iconic symbol of France's absolute monarchy.

The building retained its primary function as a retirement home and hospital for military veterans (invalides) until the early twentieth century.

The reason was that adopting a mainly conscript army after 1872 meant a substantial reduction in the number of veterans having the twenty or more years of military service formerly required to enter the Hôpital des Invalides.

It hosted archery, para-archery, road cycling, and marathon events, with the Invalides buildings providing a unique backdrop for athletes to compete.

[7] Hardouin-Mansart's Dome chapel is large enough to dominate the long façade yet harmonizes with Bruant's door under an arched pediment on the north front of Les Invalides.

The windows are masked by the lower dome, which permits natural lighting and gives the impression that viewers are actually seeing the sky, a popular Baroque affect.

The painting inside the dome by Charles de la Fosse depicts Saint Louis presenting his sword to Christ and the angels.

[8] Charles de la Fosse (1636-1716), a student of Le Brun, was one of the leading painters of the Academy, whose work is also found in the Palace of Versailles.

It was begun in 1668 the Minister of War of Louis XIV ordered that three-dimensional models be made of fortified cities and strategic places in France.

Hardouin-Mansart's Dome chapel is large enough to dominate the long façade yet harmonizes with Bruant's door under an arched pediment on the north front of Les Invalides.

The institution comprises: The Dome chapel became a military necropolis when Napoleon in September 1800 designated it for the relocation of the tomb of Louis XIV's celebrated general Turenne, followed in 1807–1808 by Vauban.

[2] In 1835, the underground gallery below the church received the remains of 14 victims of the Giuseppe Marco Fieschi's failed assassination attempt on Louis-Philippe I.

[13][14] By then, it was emperor Napoleon III who was in power and oversaw the ceremony of the transfer of the remains of his uncle from a chapel of the church to the crypt beneath the dome.

[15] The most notable tomb at Les Invalides is that of Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821), designed by Louis Visconti with sculptures by James Pradier, Pierre-Charles Simart and Francisque Joseph Duret.

Napoleon was initially interred on Saint Helena, but King Louis Philippe arranged for his remains to be brought to France in 1840, an event known as le retour des cendres.

Other military figures and members of Napoleon's family were also buried at the Dome church by year of burial there:[2] 82 additional military figures, including 28 Governors of Les Invalides, are buried in the Caveau des Gouverneurs, an underground gallery beneath the Cathédrale Saint-Louis-des-Invalides:[16] Two of these, Gabriel Malleterre and Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque, are also honored with a plaque inside the Saint-Louis-des-Invalides cathedral.