May 5, 1821 Napoleon Ier dies out in the island of Sainte-Hélène where he had been exiled to since 1815. He is buried in the shade of some weeping willows. Its mortal remains remains there until October 15, 1840. It is in 1840 that was decided by king Louis-Philippe the transfer the remains of the body of the Emperor. French sailors, placed under the command of prince de Joinville, bring back to his coffin to France to edge of the ship "Belle Poule". A national funeral accompanies the return of the Emperor Napoleon Ier and his cremation, ashes transferred to the Invalides on December 15th 1840, while waiting for the construction from the tomb. This one is ordered in 1842 by king Louis-Philippe with the architect Visconti (1791-1853), who makes realize under the Dome of significant transformations by boring an immense excavation to accomodate the tomb. The body of the Emperor Napoleon Ier, is deposited there on April 2nd 1861. The tomb, worked in blocks of red bricks from Russia, placed on a green granite base of the Vosges, is encircled of a laurel wreath and inscriptions pointing out the great victories of the Empire. In the circular gallery, a succession of low-reliefs carved by Simart appear the principal actions of the reign. At the bottom of the crypt, above the flagstone under which the King of Rome rests, a statue of the Emperor is set up carrying imperial emblèmes. The Church of the Dome shelters also the burials of two of the brothers of Napoleon, Jerome and Joseph Bonaparte, of his son, the Eaglet, like those, more recent, of the marshals Foch and Lyautey. The museum of the Army is responsible for these spaces.
