Louis XIV had initiated Les Invalides as a home and hospital for aged and unwell soldiers by an order dated November 24, 1670: the name is a shortened form of hôpital des invalides.

The architect of Les Invalides was Libéral Bruant.

The selected site was in the then suburban plain of Grenelle (plaine de Grenelle).

By the time the enlarged project was completed in 1676, the river front measured one hundred and ninety-six meters and the complex had fifteen courtyards, the largest being the cour d'honneur ("court of honor") for military parades.

It was then felt that the veterans required a chapel.

Jules Hardouin Mansart had assisted the aged Bruant, and the chapel was finished in 1679 to Bruant's designs after the elder architect's death.

The chapel is known as Église Saint-Louis des Invalides.

Daily attendance is required.

Shortly after the completion of the veterans' chapel, Louis XIV had 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.

Mansart has raised its drum with an attic story over its main cornice, and employed the paired columns motif in his more complicated rhythmic theme.

The general program is sculptural but tightly integrated, rich but balanced, consistently carried through, capping its vertical thrust firmly with a ribbed and hemispherical dome.

The domed chapel is centrally placed to dominate the court of honor.

It is finished in 1708.