Chapelle Impériale, Neo-Renaissance chapel in Ajaccio, France.
Chapelle Impériale is a Neo-Renaissance chapel built in Saint-Florent stone, forming the south wing of the Palais Fesch in Ajaccio. Its flat facade rises to a triangular pediment crowned by a cross, with a round arch above the entrance flanked by fluted columns. Inside, a ribbed dome on a windowed drum covers a Latin-cross plan with marble panels and an apse altar; the crypt holds the tombs.
The chapel was commissioned by Napoleon III in 1859 to honor the wishes of Cardinal Fesch for a burial site. Its construction created a dedicated resting place designed according to imperial family preferences during the 19th century.
The chapel is the Bonaparte family's burial ground, holding Cardinal Fesch, Napoleon I's parents Charles and Letizia, and later descendants such as Victor Napoléon and Clémentine of Belgium. Napoleon I, his son and Napoleon III lie elsewhere. Fesch's art collection funded the tomb, and the chapel forms the south wing of the Palais Fesch.
The chapel adjoins the Palais Fesch, whose south wing it forms, so it is reached from the museum side rather than from a street of its own. It belongs to the French state and has been a classified Monument historique since 22 July 1924. Outside exceptional openings such as the guided visits held in October 2021 for the bicentenary of Napoleon I's death, do not count on regular public access.
Napoleon I, his son the Duke of Reichstadt and Napoleon III are not buried here. Napoleon III died in exile in England and lies in the crypt of Saint Michael's Abbey in Farnborough, founded by his widow Eugénie in 1881; she and their son are buried there too.
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