Church of Val-de-Grace, whose name matches the name of the famous Paris military hospital in the Latin Quarter, is indeed in the territory of the institution - the tourists get there through the Military Medical Museum of the hospital. But one of the most beautiful baroque churches in Paris, perfectly visible, and with a tiny square Laveran due to an iron gate with gilt monogram, which shines with the letter "A".

The letter recalls that the hospital is located in a former Benedictine monastery, whose land bought with his own money Anne of Austria - the one for which D'Artagnan rushed to England for the abduction pendants. Abduction - a historical fact (though D'Artagnan at the time was only five years old), it is also true that the relations between the queen and her husband Louis XIII evolved worse than ever, the children they have not had for a long time. Still become pregnant after twenty-three years of fruitless marriage, Anna the next day after the birth of the baby made a vow to build a monastery in his beloved church and dedicate it to the Virgin Mary. He laid the first stone of the temple in 1645 of her seven-year son, the future Louis XIV, the Sun King.

Initially, construction led the outstanding architect Francois Mansart, and then he was replaced by Jean Lemercier, and after the death of the architect - Pierre de Myue and Gabriel Le Duc. Together, they built a magnificent Baroque building with a dome, is very similar to the dome of St. Peter's in Rome. This dome - the third largest in Paris (after the Invalides and the Pantheon).

The interior of the church made out the best artists and sculptors of the era. The impressive multi-figure fresco dome roof, which Anne of Austria and Louis are the layout of the church of Our Lady. Fresco favorite artist Louis XIV Pierre Mignard. Magnificent altar newborn Jesus and the Virgin Mary, created by Gabriel Le Duc.

The church was completed in 1667, a year after the death of Anne of Austria from breast cancer. During the revolution, the church organ was destroyed, desecrated the church itself, the monastery turned into a military hospital. This probably saved him (and the Church) from total destruction. Now the former convent is one of the best hospitals in the world in which, in particular, treated the first persons of the French Republic. Perhaps this explains a certain inaccessibility of the church.