Val-de-Grâce

The Val-de-Grâce church rises above the fifth arrondissement with a double-shelled dome that mirrors the design of Saint Peter’s in Rome. Anne of Austria commissioned the building in sixteen forty-five as a thank you to the Virgin Mary for the birth of her son, Louis the Fourteenth. The architect François Mansart began the work, but he left the project after disputes over mounting costs. He departed, leaving the structure to other hands, while the king lived to survive a severe childhood illness.