Kilmainham Royal Hospital

This seventeenth-century building, now home to the Irish Museum of Modern Art, was originally founded in the 1680s as a home for retired soldiers, inspired by Les Invalides in Paris. Arranged around a large formal courtyard, it is one of the finest classical buildings in Ireland and predates most of the Georgian city. After the army departed it was restored in the 1980s to house a national collection of modern and contemporary art. The grounds include formal gardens and a restored medieval burial site.