Santa Ana Castle, Castro Urdiales, Spain

Photo from Flickr, copyright saxuisse

Historic Site of the week

Les Invalides

Les Invalides is a complex of buildings containing museums and monuments, all relating to the military history of France, as well as a hospital and a retirement home for war veterans, the building"s original purpose. The buildings house the Musée de l"Armée, the military museum of the Army of France, the Musée des Plans-Reliefs, and the Musée d"Histoire Contemporaine, as well as the burial site for some of France"s war heroes, notably Napoleon Bonaparte.

Louis XIV initiated the project in 1670, as a home and hospital for aged and unwell soldiers: the name is a shortened form of hôpital des invalides. The architect of Les Invalides was Libéral Bruant. The enlarged project was completed in 1676, the river front measured 196 metres and the complex had fifteen courtyards. Jules Hardouin Mansart assisted the aged Bruant, and the chapel was finished in 1679 to Bruant"s designs after the elder architect"s death.

Shortly after the veterans" chapel was completed, Louis XIV commissioned Mansart to construct a separate private royal chapel referred to as the Église du Dôme from its most striking feature. Inspired by St. Peter"s Basilica in Rome, the original for all Baroque domes, it is one of the triumphs of French Baroque architecture. The domed chapel is centrally placed to dominate the court of honour. It was finished in 1708.

Because of its location and significance, the Invalides served as the scene for several key events in French history. On 14 July 1789 it was stormed by Parisian rioters who seized the cannons and muskets stored in its cellars to use against the Bastille later the same day. Napoleon was entombed under the dome of the Invalides with great ceremony in 1840. In December 1894 the degradation of Captain Alfred Dreyfus was held before the main building, while his subsequent rehabilitation ceremony took place in a courtyard of the complex in 1906.

The building retained its primary function of a retirement home and hospital for military veterans until the early twentieth century. In 1872 the musée d"artillerie (Artillery Museum) was located within the building to be joined by the Historical Museum of the Armies in 1896. The two institutions were merged to form the present musée de l"armée in 1905. At the same time the veterans in residence were dispersed to smaller centres outside Paris. The reason was that the adoption of a mainly conscript army, after 1872, meant a substantial reduction in the numbers of veterans having the twenty or more years of military service formerly required to enter the Hôpital des Invalides. The building accordingly became too large for its original purpose. The modern complex does however still include the facilities detailed below for about a hundred elderly or incapacitated former soldiers.

Mama Martin (2 years ago)
Previoso

Ruben A. Monzon (2 years ago)
Castillo Templario de Santa Ana de Castro Urdiales - In 1163 Alfonso VIII granted Castro-Urdiales the repopulation jurisdiction to be donated to the Las Huelgas monastery between 1187 and 1193 and between 1214 and 1219, date from which it will always be a town of realengo, belonging to the Four Villas Corregimiento , then to the Bastille of Laredo and from 1830 to the province of Santander. The fortification had to rise around 1200, while the walled enclosure of the town and the neighboring church of San Pedro. It actively participated in the war of Independence against the French.

Matigulla Mukhatdinov (2 years ago)
Nice Castle near the sea

Gege86 Demonssouls (2 years ago)
Really cool place.

Amelia Pereira Alvarez (3 years ago)
One of the most beautiful places in the north of Spain. I love it!!!

Santa Ana Castle

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Historic Site of the week

Les Invalides

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