Musée de l'Armée, Military museum in Les Invalides, Paris, France
The Musée de l'Armée occupies the east and west wings around the Cour d'honneur of the Hôtel national des Invalides, plus a wing west of the Saint-Louis church. Its permanent collections cover 12,000 m2 and hold 500,000 artifacts, from the Royal Room's crown collections to the Charles de Gaulle Historial, a subterranean space under the Cour de la Valeur. The facade above the entrance arches is inscribed "MUSÉE DE L'ARMÉE".
The museum was created in 1905 through the merger of two separate institutions: the Musée d'Artillerie founded in 1795 after the French Revolution, and the Musée Historique de l'Armée. This combination brought together major military collections that had been growing independently for over a century.
The museum's name comes from the Hôtel des Invalides, founded by Louis XIV as a home for wounded soldiers; a still-active military hospital operates on the same 15-hectare site. The Salle des Drapeaux, or Turenne room, held more than 700 flags and standards. The museum also hosts about forty classical and jazz concerts a year in the Cathedral of Saint-Louis and in spaces usually closed to the public.
The museum occupies the East and West wings around the Cour d'honneur plus a wing west of Saint-Louis Church, with the Charles de Gaulle Historial underground beneath the Cour de la Valeur. It is served by the Invalides, Varenne and La Tour-Maubourg metro stations and by the Invalides RER station. The site also holds a working military hospital, so some areas are off-limits.
The Cour d'honneur holds 60 French classical bronze cannons plus a dozen howitzers and mortars gathered during the Revolution. Among them is the Vogelgreif, the longest bronze cannon in the world, taken to Koblenz and returned after the Second World War. Two of the largest First Empire howitzers, seized by the Prussians, stand here after being offered by the Red Army.
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