Musée des Plans-Reliefs

The Hotel des Invalides hides a collection of intricately carved wooden landscapes within its attic levels. The Musee des Plans-Reliefs houses these three-dimensional maps commissioned by King Louis the Fourteenth. His war minister, Louvois, ordered these scale models to help generals plan sieges and fortify borders. Each model recreates a city or a fortress with precise detail, from individual buildings to the texture of the surrounding hills. Soldiers and engineers once studied these surfaces to plot their movements against enemy lines.