France (Wikipedia)

Although Lister did not mention Val-De-Grâce in his pocketbook or memoirs, his fellow traveler Philip Skippon noted:

Valdegrace is a new church, building at the expense of the late queen-mother of France; it hath a handsome ascent up to it by several stone steps, which leads into a portico in the front of the church; it is made after the Italian fashion, and hath a cupola between the choir and the nave.  That queen’s heart is buried here.

Queen Anne of Austria (1601-66) built the church and the monastery of the Val-de-Grâce to express her gratitude to God for the birth of Louis XIV, and symbolically, the church is a visual manifestation of her power.   In particular, its building celebrated her victory in the Fronde and celebrated her status as sovereign.

Val-de-Grâce is in the Faubourg Saint-Jacques, an area populated by many religious communities; by building the church, Queen Anne ‘joined some prestigious foundations and created a stronger lure for other Counter-Reformation religious houses’. ¹  The monastery is now a military hospital.

Gallery

Back to top