Catholic Church of the Val-de-Grâce

The Val-de-Grâce church stands as a monumental thank-you note from a queen to heaven. After more than two decades of a childless and difficult marriage, Anne of Austria, the wife of King Louis the thirteenth, finally gave birth to a son in sixteen thirty-eight. She viewed the birth of the future Louis the fourteenth as a divine miracle and vowed to build a magnificent sanctuary in gratitude. Construction began in sixteen forty-five, and the seven-year-old prince himself laid the first stone of the project.