Places of the First Empire

Ajaccio

Napoleon's birthplace

Napoleon Bonaparte was born on August 15, 1769 in Ajaccio, Corsica. The Bonaparte family home is now…

41.92°N, 8.74°E

Golfe-Juan

Hundred Days landing

Napoleon landed at Golfe-Juan on March 1, 1815 with about a thousand men. It marked the start of the…

43.57°N, 7.10°E

Toulon

The siege of 1793

In December 1793, a twenty-four-year-old artillery captain imposed his plan before Toulon, which had…

43.12°N, 5.93°E

Blois

The regency in flight, 1814

From 2 to 9 April 1814, Blois was the capital of the Empire: the regent Empress, the King of Rome, t…

47.59°N, 1.33°E

Soissons

The capitulation of 1814

On 3 March 1814 the fortress of Soissons was surrendered to the allies without need. Blücher, trappe…

49.38°N, 3.32°E

Paris

The imperial capital

Napoleon wanted to make Paris “something fabulous, colossal, unknown until our day”. He gave it brid…

48.86°N, 2.35°E

Autun

Three months to learn French

In January 1779 a nine-year-old boy who spoke only Italian entered the college of Autun. Four months…

46.95°N, 4.30°E

Brienne-le-Château

The military school, 1779-1784

Five years of military college at Brienne forged a solitary, mathematical, Corsican child. Thirty ye…

48.39°N, 4.52°E

Valence

The first regiment, 1785

A second lieutenant at sixteen in the La Fère artillery regiment, Bonaparte spent at Valence the mon…

44.93°N, 4.89°E

Auxonne

The artillery school, 1788-1791

At the school of application at Auxonne, under Baron du Teil, the young officer learned the field ar…

47.19°N, 5.39°E

Marseille

The family as refugees, 1793

Driven from Corsica by the break with Paoli, the Bonapartes landed in June 1793 and lived in Marseil…

43.30°N, 5.37°E

Boulogne-sur-Mer

The camp of Boulogne, 1803-1805

For two years a hundred and fifty thousand men camped facing England, waiting for a fleet that never…

50.73°N, 1.61°E

Rochefort

Surrender to the Bellerophon, July 1815

Twelve days of hesitation in a blockaded port: sail for America, force a passage, or surrender. On 1…

45.94°N, -0.96°E

Laffrey

The Meadow of the Meeting, 7 March 1815

Facing the battalion sent to stop him, Napoleon walked forward alone and opened his greatcoat. The 5…

45.00°N, 5.78°E

Grenoble

The first city to rally, March 1815

“Before Grenoble I was an adventurer; at Grenoble I was a prince.” The city meant to stop him gave h…

45.19°N, 5.72°E

Lyon

The decrees of March 1815

The Count of Artois left Lyon without finding a single soldier to follow him. Napoleon entered on 10…

45.76°N, 4.84°E

Bayonne

The Spanish abdications, 1808

In May 1808 Napoleon summoned the King of Spain and his son to Bayonne, and left with their crown. I…

43.49°N, -1.47°E

Strasbourg

The gateway to Germany

Every German campaign passed through Strasbourg. In September 1805 two hundred thousand men crossed …

48.57°N, 7.75°E

Montereau

Campaign of France, 18 February 1814

At the confluence of the Seine and the Yonne, Napoleon laid the guns himself and threw his gunners t…

48.38°N, 2.95°E

Fontainebleau

Palace and 1814 abdication

Fontainebleau Palace was the scene of Napoleon's abdication on April 6, 1814. He signed the treaty g…

48.40°N, 2.70°E

Malmaison

Joséphine's country house

Joséphine bought Malmaison in April 1799 while Bonaparte was in Egypt. The house became a second sea…

48.87°N, 2.17°E

Saint-Cloud

From 18 Brumaire to imperial palace

It was in the Orangery of Saint-Cloud that the Council of Five Hundred was dispersed at bayonet poin…

48.84°N, 2.22°E

Rambouillet

Marie Louise's last departure

In April 1814, Marie Louise and the King of Rome left France from Rambouillet, escorted by the Emper…

48.64°N, 1.82°E

Compiègne

The meeting of 1810

It was at Compiègne that Napoleon met Marie Louise for the first time, on 27 March 1810 — three days…

49.42°N, 2.83°E

Château de Navarre

Joséphine's refuge after the divorce

After the divorce of December 1809, Napoleon gave Joséphine the duchy of Navarre, near Évreux. She m…

49.02°N, 1.12°E

Tuileries Palace

The palace of power, vanished

This is where Napoleon actually governed for fourteen years, and where the King of Rome was born. Bu…

48.86°N, 2.33°E

Élysée Palace

The second abdication, 22 June 1815

Four days after Waterloo, Napoleon abdicated a second time in the small palace of the Faubourg Saint…

48.87°N, 2.32°E

Versailles and the Grand Trianon

The royal legacy reused

Napoleon refused to live at Versailles, too royal and too costly, but had the Grand Trianon refurnis…

48.81°N, 2.11°E

Meudon

The King of Rome’s residence

The new château of Meudon was assigned to the heir of the Empire, who spent the summers of his short…

48.81°N, 2.23°E

Laeken

The imperial palace in Brussels

In 1804 Napoleon bought the château of Laeken to hold the annexed Belgian departments. The palace he…

50.89°N, 4.35°E

Monza

The royal villa of the Kingdom of Italy

The residence of Eugène de Beauharnais, viceroy of Italy, the villa of Monza was the Saint-Cloud of …

45.58°N, 9.27°E

The Quirinal

The imperial palace in Rome, never occupied

After the annexation of 1809 the popes' palace was converted at great expense into an imperial resid…

41.90°N, 12.49°E

Stupinigi

The Piedmont hunting lodge

A masterpiece of Savoyard baroque, the palazzina of Stupinigi became an imperial residence after the…

45.02°N, 7.61°E

Saint Helena

Napoleon's final exile

The British island of Saint Helena, lost in the South Atlantic, hosted Napoleon from October 15, 181…

-15.96°N, -5.72°E

Elba Island

First exile (1814-1815)

By the Treaty of Fontainebleau, Napoleon received sovereignty over the island of Elba. He landed the…

42.77°N, 10.23°E

Vienna

Twice occupied by the Grande Armée

Capital of the Habsburgs, Vienna is the only major European capital Napoleon entered twice: on 13 No…

48.21°N, 16.37°E

Parma

Marie Louise's duchy

The Treaty of Fontainebleau of 11 April 1814 granted Marie Louise the duchies of Parma, Piacenza and…

44.80°N, 10.33°E

Schönbrunn

Imperial headquarters, 1805 and 1809

Napoleon twice took up residence in the Habsburgs' summer palace, in 1805 and 1809. There he signed …

48.18°N, 16.31°E

Savona

Pius VII a prisoner, 1809-1812

Seized from Rome in July 1809, Pope Pius VII was held for nearly three years in the bishop's palace …

44.31°N, 8.48°E

Venice

The end of the Serenissima

On 12 May 1797, under threat from Bonaparte's troops, the Great Council voted an end to a thousand y…

45.44°N, 12.32°E

Munich

The Bavarian alliance

By choosing France in the autumn of 1805, Bavaria won a royal crown and doubled its territory. There…

48.14°N, 11.58°E

Vilnius

Twice through, 1812

The Grande Armée entered Vilnius on 28 June 1812, full of Polish hopes; it came back through on 9 De…

54.69°N, 25.28°E

Braunau am Inn

Fortress of 1805, execution of Palm in 1806

A lock between Bavaria and Austria, Braunau fell without a fight in October 1805. There, on 26 Augus…

48.26°N, 13.03°E

Malta

The end of the Order of St John, June 1798

On his way to Egypt, Bonaparte took Malta in three days and ended two hundred and sixty-eight years …

35.90°N, 14.51°E

Alexandria

The landing of July 1798

The army landed at Marabout in the night of 1 July 1798 and took Alexandria the next day. A month la…

31.20°N, 29.92°E

Giza

The Pyramids, 21 July 1798

The battle known as the Pyramids was in fact fought at Embabeh, fifteen kilometres away. The line ab…

29.98°N, 31.13°E

Cairo

The Institute of Egypt and the revolt

Bonaparte founded a learned academy there and crushed an insurrection three months later. Cairo show…

30.04°N, 31.24°E

Jaffa

The massacre and the plague-stricken, March 1799

In four days Jaffa produced the two opposite images of the same man: the execution of thousands of p…

32.06°N, 34.75°E

Acre

The failed siege, March-May 1799

Two months of siege, eight assaults, a siege train captured at sea and the plague: before Acre, Bona…

32.93°N, 35.08°E

Milan

The iron crown, May 1805

Having entered as a liberator in 1796, Napoleon crowned himself King of Italy in Milan cathedral on …

45.46°N, 9.19°E

Rome

The Empire’s second city

Annexed in 1809, proclaimed the Empire's second city and given as a title to the heir, Rome never re…

41.90°N, 12.50°E

Berlin

The Continental Blockade decree, 1806

Thirteen days after Jena, Napoleon entered Berlin through the Brandenburg Gate. He carried off its q…

52.52°N, 13.40°E

Madrid

The Dos de Mayo and Joseph’s throne

On 2 May 1808 Madrid rose and Murat had men shot all night. Goya made two paintings of it; Spain mad…

40.42°N, -3.70°E

Moscow

The Kremlin and the fire, September 1812

He entered on 14 September 1812 a city emptied of its inhabitants, which burned the next day. Thirty…

55.76°N, 37.62°E

Tilsit

The raft on the Niemen, July 1807

Two emperors met alone on a raft anchored in mid-river and divided Europe between them. Five years l…

55.08°N, 21.88°E

Erfurt

The pit full of kings, October 1808

Napoleon summoned to Erfurt the Tsar and a dozen German sovereigns to impress Austria. Talleyrand, p…

50.98°N, 11.03°E

Warsaw

The Duchy of Warsaw, 1807-1815

Welcomed as a liberator in 1806, Napoleon created a Polish duchy without ever restoring Poland. A hu…

52.23°N, 21.01°E

Amsterdam

Louis’s Kingdom of Holland

Made King of Holland in 1806, Louis Bonaparte took his subjects' side against his brother. He instal…

52.37°N, 4.90°E

Longwood House

The house of the last five years

A former cow shed turned into a residence, on a windswept plateau. French property since 1858, it wa…

-15.94°N, -5.67°E

The Briars

Two months with the Balcombes, 1815

While waiting for Longwood, Napoleon lodged in the pavilion of an English merchant and befriended hi…

-15.95°N, -5.71°E

Portoferraio

The capital of three hundred days

Twenty-two thousand subjects, a guard of a thousand men, two residences and a flag he designed himse…

42.82°N, 10.33°E

Plymouth

The Bellerophon in the Sound, July 1815

For two weeks thousands of English people hired boats to come and see the captive Emperor aboard a s…

50.37°N, -4.14°E

The Louvre

The Napoleon Museum

Renamed the Musée Napoléon in 1803 and run by Vivant Denon, the Louvre became the greatest museum ev…

48.86°N, 2.34°E

Church of Saint-Roch

13 Vendémiaire Year IV

On 5 October 1795 an unemployed general turned cannon on the royalist rising outside Saint-Roch, in …

48.87°N, 2.33°E

Luxembourg Palace

From the Directory to the Senate

Seat of the Directory, then of the provisional Consulate, then of the conservative Senate: Marie de'…

48.85°N, 2.34°E

Notre-Dame de Paris

The coronation of 2 December 1804

Napoleon chose Notre-Dame over Reims, summoned the pope and crowned himself. The cathedral, a temple…

48.85°N, 2.35°E

Arc de Triomphe

Commissioned 1806, completed 1836

Decreed after Austerlitz, the arch had barely left the ground when the Empire fell. Napoleon never s…

48.87°N, 2.29°E

École Militaire

A lieutenant at sixteen, 1784-1785

One year of study instead of two or three: his father's death forced cadet Bonaparte to sit the arti…

48.85°N, 2.31°E

Banque de France

The Hôtel de Toulouse and the germinal franc

Founded in January 1800, the Bank gave France a currency stable for more than a century. A speculati…

48.86°N, 2.34°E

Palais-Bourbon

The Legislative Body, a chamber without speech

Under the Empire the deputies voted without debating: the Legislative Body was nicknamed the body of…

48.86°N, 2.32°E

Council of State

The workshop of the Civil Code

It was the only assembly of the Empire where real debate took place, and where Napoleon listened. Th…

48.86°N, 2.34°E

Palace of the Legion of Honour

The Hôtel de Salm, seat of the order

Created in 1802 despite the Council of State's opposition, the Legion of Honour was the first order …

48.86°N, 2.33°E

Les Invalides

The Emperor's tomb

Founded by Louis XIV for his wounded soldiers, the Hôtel des Invalides has housed Napoleon's tomb be…

48.86°N, 2.31°E

Rueil-Malmaison

The tombs of Joséphine and Hortense

The church of Saint-Pierre-Saint-Paul, the parish of the Malmaison estate, holds the tombs of Empres…

48.88°N, 2.18°E

Capuchin Crypt

Marie Louise and the Eaglet among the Habsburgs

The Habsburg necropolis since 1633, the Capuchin Crypt in Vienna holds Marie Louise's tomb. Napoleon…

48.21°N, 16.37°E

Père-Lachaise

Death reorganised by decree, 1804

Opened in May 1804, the Eastern cemetery applied the decree forbidding burial inside towns. Shunned …

48.86°N, 2.39°E

The Valley of the Tomb

The nameless grave, 1821-1840

A bare slab under willows, in a small valley on Saint Helena. It stayed uninscribed because the Fren…

-15.96°N, -5.69°E

Lodi

The bridge of 10 May 1796

A wooden bridge over the Adda, stormed under grapeshot by infantry columns. The bridge is gone; what…

45.31°N, 9.50°E

Arcole

The bridge, the flag, the legend

Three days of fighting in marshland, in November 1796. The marshes have been drained and the bridge …

45.36°N, 11.29°E

Rivoli Veronese

The plateau of 14 January 1797

The only battlefield of the Italian campaign that can still be read on the ground. The plateau above…

45.57°N, 10.81°E

Marengo

The victory that founded the Consulate

A battle lost until five in the afternoon and won by six. The field is now an industrial suburb of A…

44.88°N, 8.66°E

Eylau

The butchery in the snow, February 1807

Twenty-five thousand dead and wounded for a battlefield held at nightfall and nothing else. The plac…

54.39°N, 20.64°E

Friedland

The victory that led to Tilsit

Four months after Eylau, the same Russian army was crushed in a river loop. The town is now called P…

54.44°N, 21.01°E

Aspern-Essling

The first defeat, May 1809

Two villages on the Danube where Napoleon lost a battle for the first time, and where Lannes was kil…

48.23°N, 16.49°E

Dresden

The last great victory, August 1813

On 27 August 1813, in the rain, Napoleon beat an army twice his size before the gates of Dresden. It…

51.05°N, 13.74°E

Leipzig

The Battle of the Nations, October 1813

Six hundred thousand men engaged in four days, the largest battle in Europe before 1914. The centena…

51.31°N, 12.41°E

The Berezina

The bridges of Studienka, November 1812

Technically a successful operation: the army got across. In French, the word has become a synonym fo…

54.28°N, 28.50°E

Ligny

The last victory, 16 June 1815

Two days before Waterloo, Napoleon beat Blücher in a Walloon village — but did not destroy him. The …

50.52°N, 4.57°E

Quatre-Bras

The crossroads missed, 16 June 1815

A road junction held by Wellington while Napoleon beat Blücher fifteen kilometres away. Ney, ordered…

50.58°N, 4.45°E

Cape Trafalgar

21 October 1805

The sea lost for ten years, forty kilometres from Cadiz. The cape is now a lighthouse in the middle …

36.18°N, -6.04°E

Bailén

The first capitulation, July 1808

An imperial army capitulated in the open field before Spanish troops. The news went round Europe in …

38.09°N, -3.78°E

Smolensk

The burned city, August 1812

Taken in flames on the way out, recrossed in famine on the way back. Smolensk has kept its seventeen…

54.78°N, 32.05°E

Toulouse, 1814

The useless battle of 10 April

Soult and Wellington fought four days after the abdication at Fontainebleau, without knowing it. Fou…

43.60°N, 1.44°E

Hougoumont

The farm that held all day

Wellington wrote that the outcome of the battle had turned on the closing of a gate. Restored in 201…

50.67°N, 4.40°E

La Haye Sainte

The lock of the allied centre

A farm beside the Brussels highway, held all day by four hundred Germans in British service. It fell…

50.68°N, 4.41°E

Plancenoit

The village where the Prussians arrived

While Wellington held the plateau, the real decision was fought on the French right flank, in a vill…

50.67°N, 4.42°E

Waterloo battlefield

The Lion's Mound, the Panorama and a landscape protected since 1914

The two ridges on which the armies clashed on 18 June 1815 are still there, south of Brussels. A cas…

50.68°N, 4.41°E