Places, museums, monuments

Following his article against Napoleon which had appeared in the Mercure in 1807, Chateaubriand, victim of imperial censorship, was forced to move out of at least two houses in Paris. However, thanks to the success of his earlier publications, Atala and Le Génie du Christianisme, he was able to afford a modest property located in […]

The Napoleonic Museum in Cuba is the happy result of the combinationof the personal collections of Julio Lobo and Orestes Ferrara. The artefacts and memorabilia on exhibition were bought at auctionduring the first half of the 20th century and represent the mostimportant Napoleonic collection in Central America. The collection itself was declared a 'National Heritage' […]

In February 1979, the A Bandera association was formed, an organisation with the mission to promote interest in the military history of Corsica. And this goal was to be achieved through a periodical, through conferences and through a museum with one permanent and occasional temporary exhibitions. This museum has been in being since 1989 and […]

In 1764, Charles-Marie Bonaparte wed the young Letizia Ramolino and settled with her in the Bonaparte family residence. Napoleon was born there on August 15, 1769, and Lucien, Louis, Jerome, Elisa, Pauline and Caroline followed. After three years spent on the continent from 1793 to 1796 due to the family's allegiance with the French Republic, […]

The symbol par excellence of French monarchy, Versailles once again became a royal residence during the First Empire. Napoleon had the palace restored and made up his mind to spend every summer there but had to abdicate before having time to carry out his plan. Marie-Louise occupied the Trianon from 1810 to 1814 after marrying […]

The city of Arcole is situated in the middle of swampland, near the confluence of the Adige and the Alpone about twenty kilometres southeast of Verona. It is famous for the three-day battle that took place there during the first Italian campaign, on 15, 16, and 17 November, 1796. In order to prevent the Austrian […]

This museum of the period in Italy known as the Risorgimento is dedicated entirely to the chequered history of Italianunification, a movement in which Napoleon in fact played an important part. For it was as a result of the First Italian Campaign that Bonaparte established himself as a defender of the Italian cause against theAustrian […]

The history of the Canonniers Sédentaires de Lille is closely linked to that of the city. In 1235, the city was emancipated and had to take on the heavy costs of building and fortifying the city. Of the archers, crossbowmen, the swordsmen and gunners who could be mobilised by the aldermen, all that remained were […]

The Musée de l'Empéri was started by two passionate collectors, Raoul and Jean Brunon, and contains a total of almost 10,000 objects, documents and books. The history of the French army from 1700 to 1918 is recounted thanks to large-scale historical reconstructions involving 130 life-size infantrymen and cavalrymen. Originally located in the Brunons' family home […]

Alongside the Tuileries, Saint-Cloud and Fontainebleau, Compiègne was one of the palaces where the imperial couple and the court regularly resided. Indeed it was one of the preferred houses because of the freer lifestyle which reigned, in that respect for etiquette weighed less heavily there. Compiègne also played a key role in lives of the […]