How to visit Napoleon's tomb
What you see, in order
You come in from the south. The first thing that strikes you is not the tomb but the volume: a cupola more than a hundred metres up, painted by Charles de La Fosse, and a light that falls from above onto a pale pavement. The tomb is not at floor level. It is below, in a circular open crypt cut under the cupola in 1842, so you begin by leaning over the rail and looking down at it.
That is an architect's decision, and a deliberate one. Louis Visconti wanted the visitor to lower their eyes towards the emperor: you bow your head. Only then do you go down, by a stair that turns, and arrive level with the sarcophagus, surrounded by twelve white marble Victories carved by James Pradier, one per major campaign. On the floor a mosaic laurel wreath carries the names of the victories.
The sarcophagus, and what is inside it
The great red block is not porphyry, whatever you may read: it is red quartzite from Karelia, in Russia, set on a base of green granite from the Vosges. It weighs several dozen tonnes and was hollowed from a single block. Inside, the body is enclosed in a series of nested coffins: they are usually counted as six, some counts give five, and I untangle that on the coffins page.
Why twenty years between the death and the tomb
Napoleon died on 5 May 1821 on Saint Helena and was buried there, in the Valley of the Geranium. Restoration France did not want him back. It was Louis-Philippe who, in 1840, negotiated with London what became known as the return of the ashes: the coffin was exhumed, brought home by the frigate La Belle Poule, carried up the Seine and then up the Champs-Élysées on 15 December 1840, in biting cold and in front of an enormous crowd. It entered Les Invalides that day.
But Visconti's tomb was not finished until 1861. For twenty years the body waited in the chapel of Saint-Jérôme, off to one side: that is why the Dôme, when you look at it properly, is arranged around a hole cut after the fact into a building of 1706.
Come to the Dôme early in the morning or in the last hour. Between eleven and three the rail on the upper level is occupied continuously and you look at the tomb through other people's shoulders. The quiet windows are set out on this page.
He is not alone under this dome
Around the rotunda, the side chapels hold Turenne, the heart of Vauban, Napoleon's brothers — Joseph, King of Spain, and Jérôme, King of Westphalia — the generals Bertrand and Duroc, the marshals Foch and Lyautey, and his son Napoleon II, the Eaglet, brought back from Vienna in 1940. The full list, with what each is doing there, is on the burials page.
Booking entry
The ticket below opens the Dôme and the tomb at no extra cost, along with the four museums. The guided tours that narrate the Dôme are compared on the comparison page.
A reminder: what you book above is the ticket that opens the Army Museum, the Dôme and the tomb. The great courtyard and the Saint-Louis cathedral stay free to enter, with no ticket at all.
Frequently asked questions
Do you need a special ticket for the tomb?
No: the Les Invalides entry ticket opens the Dôme. See the ticket page.
Can you go down to the sarcophagus?
Yes. You see it from above at the rail first, then descend into the crypt by a turning stair.
What is the sarcophagus made of?
Red quartzite from Karelia, often wrongly called porphyry, on a base of green granite from the Vosges.
How long do you spend there?
Thirty to forty-five minutes for the Dôme alone, side chapels included.
Is Napoleon really inside?
Yes, in a set of nested coffins placed inside the sarcophagus: see the coffins page.