Dôme
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Leave the St-François-Xavier metro station and walk up Avenue de Villars. The Dôme will be straight ahead of you. A soldiers’ church already stood here when Louis XIV asked Jules Hardouin-Mansart to build this magnificent structure as his personal chapel in 1676. It was to be reserved for the exclusive use of the King and to act as the place for royal tombs. The tombs never materialised, but this spectacular example of Baroque architecture still remains a monument to Bourbon glory. The church itself took 27 years to build, and the dome (107 metres or 350 feet) occupies half of its height and dominates the rest of the building with its fine proportioning. First gilded in 1715, it was regilded in 1937 and again in 1989.
The interior ceiling of the Dôme contains a painting by Charles de la Fosse, the Glory of Paradise. Dating from 1692, it shows St-Louis presenting his sword to Christ. Napoleon’s final wish was to ‘rest on the banks of the Seine’, so in 1840 King Louis-Philippe decided to bring the Emperor’s body back from St Helena. This was seen as a gesture of goodwill to his Republican and
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