Scots College (Paris)

The Scots College in Paris occupies a seventeenth-century building defined by a heavy stone facade and a curious, walled-in courtyard that feels entirely detached from the busy streets outside. It exists because of an old alliance between Scotland and France, providing a sanctuary for Catholic scholars exiled during the Protestant Reformation. In sixteen sixty, a bishop named David Moray left the money to finish this structure. He died before seeing it complete, leaving his heart to be buried in the college chapel.