Hôtel des Invalides

The dome catching the light is covered in nearly 13 kilos of pure gold leaf, and it was deliberately designed to be seen from miles away. Jules Hardouin-Mansart completed it in 1708, and his design proved so influential that the Americans later studied it closely when planning the Capitol building in Washington. A French dome shaping the heart of American democracy.

Louis XIV built this entire complex in 1676 as a genuine refuge for wounded soldiers, and the attention to detail goes further than most people realise. The staircases inside were intentionally built smooth and wide enough for men with wooden prosthetic legs, so they could climb without their artificial limbs slipping. 

On 14 July 1789, the wounded veterans living here made their own mark on history. When the governor refused to hand over weapons without a royal order, the soldiers themselves opened the gates and let the revolutionary crowd take 32,000 rifles and 27 cannons. Those weapons were used hours later to storm the Bastille.

Beneath the dome lies Napoleon, and nearby rests his son Napoleon II, repatriated from Vienna in 1940 on Hitler's personal orders as a symbolic gesture. His heart, however, stayed in Austria.