After his death on 5 May 1821, Napoleon was buried on the island of St Helena. In 1840, King Louis-Philippe negotiated with Great Britain and obtained the right to bring the Emperor’s remains back to France. He sent his son, the Prince of Joinville, to St Helena to fetch Napoleon’s coffin: this was the return of the ashes. The coffin was placed under the Dôme des Invalides in the Saint-Jérôme chapel. The architect Louis Visconti, in charge of the construction of the tomb, had an open crypt dug 6 metres deep and 23 metres in diameter. Napoleon I’s coffin was placed there on 2 April 1861 in a red quartzite sarcophagus.