Museum of Relief Maps

The Museum of Relief Maps, or the Musee des Plans-Reliefs, houses a collection of intricate, three-dimensional models that functioned as the seventeenth-century equivalent of modern satellite mapping. These masterfully detailed dioramas were commissioned by Louis the Fourteenth’s minister of war, the Marquis de Louvois, to provide the king and his military commanders with a god's-eye view of fortified cities and their surrounding terrain. By examining these miniatures, leaders in Paris could effectively plan sieges, study defensive positions, and visualize complex landscapes hundreds of miles away without ever leaving the capital.