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72-515: The church of the Val-de-Grâce was built by order of Queen Anne of Austria , wife of Louis XIII . After the birth of her son Louis XIV after 23 years of childless marriage, Anne showed her gratitude to the Virgin Mary by building a church on the land of a Benedictine convent . Louis XIV is said to have laid the cornerstone for the Val-de-Grâce in a ceremony that took place 1 April 1645, when he

144-568: A cadet branch of the House of Bourbon : Val-de-Gr%C3%A2ce (church) 48°50′27″N 02°20′31″E  /  48.84083°N 2.34194°E  / 48.84083; 2.34194 The Church of the Val-de-Grâce is a Roman Catholic church in the 5th arrondissement of Paris . The church was built as part of a royal abbey by Anne of Austria , the Queen of France, to celebrate the birth of her son, Louis XIV in 1638. Construction began in 1645 under

216-626: A difficult marital relationship, exacerbated by her miscarriages and the anti- Habsburg stance of Louis' first minister, Cardinal Richelieu . Despite a climate of distrust amidst the Franco-Spanish War and twenty-three years of childlessness in which she suffered four miscarriages, Anne gave birth to an heir, Louis, in 1638 and a second son, Philippe two years later. When Louis XIII died in 1643, Anne outmaneuvered her opponents to become sole regent to her four-year-old son, Louis XIV, and appointed Cardinal Mazarin as chief minister. The Fronde ,

288-481: A gift given by Heaven in answer to their prayers. —Madame de Motteville Despite a climate of distrust, the queen became pregnant once more, a circumstance that contemporary gossip attributed to a single stormy night that prevented Louis from travelling to Saint-Maur and obliged him to spend the night with the queen. Louis XIV was born on 5 September 1638, an event that secured the Bourbon line. At this time, Anne

360-498: A great amount of her favorites as punishment for a plot in which the queen had cooperated with queen dowager Marie de' Medici in an attempt to depose Cardinal Richelieu, and among those fired were Madame de Motteville and Madeleine du Fargis. Queen Anne asked the Cardinal to intervene so that she might keep du Fargis. When he refused, she swore that she would never forgive him. Du Fargis left for Brussels, where her spouse had sided with

432-463: A major revolt by the French nobility against Anne and Mazarin's government, broke out but was ultimately suppressed. In 1651, Anne's regency formally ended when Louis was declared of age. Accounts of French court life of her era emphasize her closeness to her son, and her disapproval of her son's infidelity to her niece and daughter-in-law Maria Theresa . She retired from active politics in 1661 and moved to

504-488: A military hospital. The original buildings serve only for offices and teaching facilities (École d'application du Service de santé des armées; the medical facilities are inside a large modern building to the east on the same grounds. The replacement hospital was built in the 1970s and completed in 1979. It has a capacity of 350 beds, in various specialties. The hospital is accessible to military personnel in need of medical aid as well as to any person with health coverage under

576-516: A model of the abbey built at her request to the Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The painting is a spiral composition with more than two hundred figures presented in concentric circles. Mignard uses foreshortening of figures, many different colors, and lighting effects in his painting. The chapel on the right facing the altar, the Chapel of Saint-Louis, was originally used exclusively by

648-636: A very expensive varnish made of heart tissue combined with alcohol,oil and other chemicals, which was believed to be the best protective coating for oil paintings. In exchange for the hearts, Drolling gave some of his own paintings, which are now found in the Louvre Museum and the Museum of the Palace of Versailles . Little is known about any early organs in the church before the Revolution. The current organ, located in

720-470: Is a copy made in 1869. The interior of the dome displays the best-known work of art in the church; a fresco painted in fourteen months by Pierre Mignard (1612-1695). It depicts "Heavenly Glory" and contains more than two hundred characters, including prophets, saints, martyrs, Fathers of the Church, and a few recognisable personalities, including its patroness, Queen Anne of Austria. The dome of Val-de-Grâce

792-517: The Church of the Gesù (1584).The plan of the church is a Latin cross crowned by a dome . The church is attached to the other buildings of the old abbey, but is distinguished from them by the height of the facade and its imposing dome. The two-story facade, with its double stages of twin columns supporting a pediment and flanking consoles, recalls church elevations from the first part of the 17th century, such as

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864-464: The Fronde . In 1651, when her son Louis XIV officially came of age, her regency legally ended. However, she kept much power and influence over her son until the death of Mazarin. In January 1648, while acting as regent, Anne received a request on behalf of artists who were affiliated with the crown or aristocracy. The artists, led by painter Charles Le Brun , wanted independence from the monopoly control of

936-578: The Ursulines and the Feuillantines , which were demolished. When the abbey was disestablished in 1790, its furniture was removed along with the organ. The baldachino was preserved, but the high altar was moved to the care of the Petis-Augustins, and the small figures of the baldachino's nativity crèche were installed at the Church of Saint-Roch . The church was restored in 1818-19 and in 1827. Control of

1008-523: The guild , which fined the artists or seized their work. The painters and sculptors petitioned Louis XIV and the Queen Regent to form a new organization. They wanted to found an academy that would be for the visual arts what Académie Française was for French literature ; this was to become the Académie Royale . Anne's regency formally ended in 1651, when Louis XIV was declared of legal majority at

1080-538: The Église des Feuillants  [ fr ] also designed by Mansart in 1623-24. More clear and sober than the Mannerists , Mansart's facade squares his façade with linked vertical lines using the columns and entablatures. The facade of the new church also took inspiration from the "Jesuit style" or Baroque architecture , from the Church of the Gesù in Rome (1584). That church inspired Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis (1627-1641),

1152-578: The BBC series The Musketeers (2014–2016). She first appears as a character in the Dinosaur King season two episode "The French Conniption" as a young teen along with a young King Louis and others. She appeared in Legends of Tomorrow ' s season two premiere episode "Out of Time", played by Rebecca Roberts. She appeared in final episode of the third season of series As If , played by Yeşim Ceylan. She

1224-488: The French social security system. It is famous for being the place where the top officials of the French Republic generally receive treatment. In the courtyard stands a statue of Dominique Jean Larrey sculpted by David d'Angers in 1843, who was Napoleon 's personal surgeon and an innovator in the concept of battlefield triage . The old abbey alongside the church is now a museum of French army medicine. Tours of

1296-457: The Fronde when Anne was Queen Regent. In 1662, Anne acquired the heart of her ancestor, Anne Elizabeth of France, and placed it in the Chapel of Saint Anne. She, herself, was interred in 1666 in the Chapel of Saint Sacrament, alongside the body of Marguerite d'Arbouze. They saw in the arms of this princess whom they had watched suffer great persecutions with so much staunchness, their child-King, like

1368-475: The Habsburgs, who surrounded France on two fronts, inevitably created tension between Louis and Anne, who remained childless for another sixteen years. Under the influence of Marie de Rohan, the queen let herself be drawn into political opposition to Richelieu and became embroiled in several intrigues against his policies. Vague rumors of betrayal circulated in the court, notably her supposed involvement, first, with

1440-579: The Queen herself. The exterior is decorated with the initials AL, for Anne and Louis. The dome was the work of the royal architect Jacques Lemercier , who took over the project after Mansart refused to carry out major modifications to his own design. Lemercier had designed the Pavillon de l'Horloge at the Louvre Palace , as well as the residence of Cardinal Richelieu at the Palais Royal . He had also designed

1512-680: The Saint-Sacrament chapel's spiral-coffered dome after Philibert de L'Orme 's chapel at the Château d'Anet . The dome is forty meters high, and was the tallest dome in Paris when it was built, but was soon passed in height by the domes of the Pantheon (60 meters) and of Les Invalides (107 meters), which it inspired. It was modelled after the dome of Saint-Peter's Basilica in Rome and was covered with lead with decos, which contain decorative gilded bands. Above

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1584-679: The Spanish court stipulated that she would return to Spain with her dowry, jewels, and wardrobe if he did die. Prior to the marriage, Anne renounced all succession rights she had for herself and her descendants by Louis, with a provision that she would resume her rights should she be left a childless widow. On 18 October 1615, Louis and Anne were married by proxy in Burgos while Louis's sister, Elisabeth of France , and Anne's brother, Philip IV of Spain , were married by proxy in Bordeaux . These marriages followed

1656-598: The Val-de-Grâce baldaquin is found in the Church of Saint-François de Sales in Neuville, Quebec . Below the baldaquin is another sculptural work, "The Nativity", depicting the birth of Christ, with figures of Joseph and the Virgin Mary with the Christ child. The original of this work wa made by Michel Anguier in the 17th century to celebrate the birth of Louis XIV and is now in the church of Saint-Roch, Paris . The work in Val-de-Grace

1728-635: The age of thirteen. In 1659, the war with Spain ended with the Treaty of the Pyrenees . The following year, peace was cemented by the marriage of the young king to Anne's niece, the Spanish Habsburg princess Maria Theresa of Spain . In 1661, the same year as the death of Mazarin, an heir to the throne was born, Anne's first grandchild Louis . Many other children would follow, but all in the legitimate line would die except for Louis. Sometime after, Anne retired to

1800-532: The age of thirty-seven, after twenty-two years of marriage, became pregnant with Louis' heir, the future Louis XIV of France , and with his birth everything changed for the Queen. Cardinal Richelieu died in 1642, and Louis XIII died a few months later. in 1643, Anne became Queen-Regent to her four-year-old son, now Louis XIV. In gratitude for his birth, Anne pressed forward with the construction of an entirely rebuilt church and monastery, "to spare no expense and to leave an eternal mark of her piety." The first stone

1872-434: The arcades with rounded arches on either side of the nave. The spandrels of the nave are highly decorated with works of allegorical sculpture made by the brothers Francois Anguier (1604-1669) and Michel Anguier (1612-1686), and Philippe de Buyster (1595-1688). The sculpture on the spandrels depicts the theological virtues, while the vaults display busts of Joseph and Mary and other saints. The baldaquin , or canopy over

1944-618: The baldachin inside. After the birth of her first grandchild, Anne retired to the convent of Val-de-Grâce, where she died five years later in 1666. During the French Revolution in 1793 the Benedictines were expelled from the abbey, and the National Convention ordered the conversion of the abbey into a military hospital. The royal symbols were effaced, but the abbey was spared the fate of several nearby convents, such as those of

2016-565: The chapel of Saint-Anne, was built by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll in 1852, who constructed the organs of Notre Dame de Paris , Saint-Sulpice , Sacre-Coeur basilica , the American Cathedral in Paris and other Paris churches. It was originally located in the Church of Saint-Genevieve, but was moved to Val-de-Grace in 1885 when the Church was converted to the Pantheon, a national shrine. It was restored to remove later additions and to bring back

2088-408: The church at Val-de-Grâce was spared much of the desecration and vandalism that plagued other, more famous Paris churches. Notre-Dame , by contrast, was looted and used as a warehouse, and Saint-Eustache was used as a barn). As a result, the church's exquisite interior is one of the few unspoiled remnants of Paris's pre-Revolution grandeur. Following the Revolution, the buildings were converted into

2160-489: The church is full of light, and decorated with a harmonious combination of French classicism and Italian Baroque elements. Its decoration was influenced by St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, particularly the baldaquin designed by Italian Baroque architect and sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini . Bernini visited Val-de-Grace, and called it "The marvel of the Ile-de-France". Rows of classical columns with Corinthian capitals form

2232-567: The church was returned to the Catholic Diocese. The high altar was rebuilt at the order of Napoleon III by Victor Ruprich-Robert . The priest at Saint-Roch declined to return the original Anguier crèche, so a duplicate was created, using three sculptors: Clement Denis sculpted the infant Jesus, Justin-Marie the Virgin, and Joseph was sculpted by Louis Desprez. The design of the church was inspired by two Roman churches, Saint Peter's Basilica and

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2304-456: The church, to the south of the center of Paris, was a royal property since the 13th century. At the beginning of the 16th century it was purchased by the Connetable of Bourbon, who built a small chateau there, which took the name Hotel de Petit-Bourbon. In 1621 Queen Anne of Austria , nineteen years old, who had been married to King Louis XIII at age 13, purchased the estate and the chateau, with

2376-486: The conspiracies of the Count of Chalais that Marie organized in 1626, and then those of the king's treacherous favorite, Cinq-Mars , who had been introduced to him by Richelieu. In 1626, the Cardinal placed Madeleine du Fargis as Dame d'atour in the household of the queen to act as a spy, but she was instead to become a trusted confidant and favorite of the queen. In December 1630, Louis XIII reduced Anne's court and purged

2448-479: The convent of Val-de-Grâce , where she died of breast cancer five years later. The couple had the following children: She is one of the central figures in Alexandre Dumas 's 1844 novel The Three Musketeers and its sequels Twenty Years After (1845) and The Vicomte de Bragelonne (1847-1850), and has thus been portrayed in numerous film adaptations . Her lady-in-waiting Madame de Motteville wrote

2520-595: The convent she had commissioned, Val-de-Grâce , where she died of breast cancer five years later. Born at the Benavente Palace  [ es ] in Valladolid , Spain , and baptised Ana María Mauricia, she was the eldest daughter of King Philip III of Spain and his wife Margaret of Austria . She held the titles of Infanta of Spain and of Portugal (since her father was king of Portugal as well as Spain ) and Archduchess of Austria. Despite her Spanish birth, she

2592-530: The convent to Paris in 1621. She was named the new foundress of the convent in the same year. Her patronage included the building of a small church and an apartment for herself between 1620 and 1625, against the wishes of both Louis and Cardinal Richelieu. The Val-de-Grâce was commissioned by Anne in 1645, which was undertaken initially by Francois Mansart, who was dismissed in 1646 and succeeded by Jacques Lemercier. The Val-de-Grâce became Anne's main place of worship and would later gain dynastic significance during

2664-470: The couple together under amiable circumstances. Anne began to dress in the French manner, and in 1619 Luynes pressed the king to bed his queen. Some affection developed, to the point where it was noted that Louis was distracted during a serious illness of the queen. A series of miscarriages disenchanted the king and served to chill their relations. On 14 March 1622, while playing with her ladies, Anne fell and suffered her second stillbirth. Louis blamed her for

2736-426: The courtyard from the other portions of the convent. The convent was constructed with two wings. To the left of the church was a building containing the residence of the nuns, as well as apartments for women connected with the royal family; the three nieces of Cardinal Mazarin; Queen Christine of Sweden; Henriette of France, Queen of England; the Queen of Poland, and others. It also included the very modest apartment of

2808-536: The direction of architect François Mansart and was completed in 1665 by Gabriel Le Duc. The abbey and church were turned into a hospital during the French Revolution and then became part of the Val-de-Grâce Hospital , which closed in 1979. The church is attached to the diocese of the French military and is open to visitors at specified hours. Its dome is a landmark in the skyline of Paris. The site of

2880-456: The dome is the campanile with a globe topped by a cross. The dome is surrounded by four lantern< which contain the bells of the church. The sides of the dome are divided by contreforts, or buttresses, between which are the windows, which have alternating rounded and triangular frontons. The frontons are also abundantly decorated with sculptures, medallions, the royal fleur-de-lis, and the initials 'L' and 'A' for Louis and Anne. The interior of

2952-551: The favour of King Louis XIII, largely because she had not given him an heir. She maintained a secret correspondence with her family in Spain, and with the royal court of England and the House of Lorraine. She and her intrigues were soon discovered by the prime minister, Cardinal Richelieu . Her correspondence was monitored, and the King for a time forbade Anne to visit the abbey, But in 1638, Anne, at

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3024-564: The first church in Paris to break away from the Gothic style. The portico of the church is supported by Corinthian columns , and the pediment of the church is decorated with the monograms AL (Anne of Austria and Louis XIII) and the Royal coat of arms. The architrave carries the inscription "Jesu. Nascenti, Virginique Matri" ("To Jesus new-born, and the Virgin Mother"), a reminder that the birth of Christ

3096-478: The government to the chief minister, Cardinal Mazarin , who was a protégé of Cardinal Richelieu and figured among the council of the regency. Mazarin took up residence at the Palais Royal near Queen Anne. Before long he was believed to be her lover, and, it was hinted, even her husband. With Mazarin's support, Anne overcame the aristocratic revolt, led by Louis II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé , that became known as

3168-619: The incident and was angry with Marie de Rohan, now the Dowager Duchess of Luynes, for having encouraged the queen in what was seen as negligence. The king's already strained relationship with the duchess worsened after the incident, leading him to demand her departure from the court. However, Rohan returned just a few months later with her new husband Claude, Duke of Chevreuse . Louis turned now to Cardinal Richelieu as his advisor, who served as his first minister from 1624 until his death in 1642. Richelieu's foreign policy of struggle against

3240-546: The influence of his mother in a palace coup d'état and had her favorite Concino Concini assassinated on 26 April of that year. During the years he was in the ascendancy Luynes attempted to remedy the formal distance between Louis and his queen. He sent away Inés de la Torre and the other Spanish ladies and replaced them with French ones, notably the Princess of Conti ( Louise Marguerite of Lorraine ) and his wife Marie de Rohan , with whom he organized court events that would bring

3312-508: The intention of finding a sanctuary away from the noise and intrigues of the royal residence in the Louvre Palace . She transformed the Petit-Bourbon into a convent for a community of Benedictine sisters from the Abbey of Val-Profonde, and in 1634 she began construction of a much larger new church and abbey on the site given by the crown. The project advanced slowly, because Anne had fallen from

3384-421: The king's brother Gaston, Duke of Orléans against the monarch. After the invasion of Gaston in 1632, letters were discovered from du Fargis to people in Paris describing the plans of a marriage between Gaston and Anne after the death of Louis XIII. Anne was questioned and confirmed that the letters were written by du Fargis, but denied any knowledge of the plans. In 1635, France declared war on Spain , placing

3456-445: The left side of the altar is the Chapel of Saint-Anne. Until the French Revolution, the chapel held the preserved heart of Anne of Austria , kept in an urn within the altar. There is also a crypt beneath the altar which contained two marble cabinets, which, since 1662, contained urns holding the hearts of forty-five princes and princesses of the different branches of Royal Family of France. The hearts included those of Queen Marie-Therese,

3528-437: The main altar in the choir, is one of the most distinctive features of the church. It was designed by the architect Gabriel Le Duc, and followed the model of the baldaquin of Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome, designed by Bernini . It consists of six twisting columns of black marble with white veins, decorated with gilding, and holding a group of carved and gilded angels made by the sculptor Michel Anguier (1612-1686). A copy of

3600-564: The mission to examine whether there was any truth to the rumor of an alliance between France and England , as this would force Spain to cut off diplomatic connections to France and disturb her network of couriers between the Spanish embassies of Paris and Brussels. On 11 August 1637, Anne came under so much suspicion that Richelieu issued an investigation. Her courier La Porte as well as the abbess of Anne's favorite convent Val-de-Grâce (where Anne had written many of her secret letters) were questioned and admitted to having participated in channeling

3672-407: The museum and church are available for a small fee. As a military facility, the grounds are under military guard and tourists are escorted. Cameras are not permitted except for inside the church itself. The last emperor of Vietnam , Bảo Đại , died at the modern Val-de-Grâce hospital on 30 July 1997, aged 83. Val-de-Grâce was later the traditional burial place for members of the House of Orléans ,

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3744-523: The other in the chapel of the Sorbonne . Some painting in oil pastel was later added to the fresco, but it faded soon after. Mignard’s painting was praised in "La Gloire du Val-de-Grâce", the only poem published by the playwright Molière , a friend of Mignard. The poem challenged the claims about the genius of Mignard's rival, Le Brun, made in a poem by Charles Perrault . The fresco depicts Anne of Austria being presented by St Anne and St Louis. and giving

3816-545: The queen and her household under control. As part of her role as a member of French royalty, Anne visited churches and convents across France, where she met Marguerite de Veny d'Arbouze at the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce de la-Ville-d'Evêque. As well as securing from the King the position of Abbess at the Benedictine Val-de-Grâce de Notre-Dame-de-la-Crèche for Marguerite in 1618, Anne purchased lands and transferred

3888-561: The queen in an untenable position. Her secret correspondence with her brother Philip IV of Spain was not the only communication she had with the Spanish. She also corresponded with the Spanish ambassador Mirabel and the governor of the Spanish Netherlands . With the assistance of Anne's servant La Porte, who acted as courier, Madeleine du Fargis and Marie de Rohan acted as agents for her secret correspondence and channeled her letters to other contacts. In July 1637, Anne gave du Fargis

3960-462: The queen's secret correspondence. Anne initially swore on the Holy Sacrament that she had participated in no illegal correspondence, but finally admitted her guilt on 15 August. On 17 August, Queen Anne was forced to sign covenants regarding her correspondence, which was henceforth open to inspection; she was further banned from visiting convents without permission and was never to be left alone but

4032-609: The rich sound associated with Cavaillé-Coll instruments. It was listed as an object of historical importance by the French Ministry of Culture in 1979. THE organ has twenty-one stops, two keyboards and a set of pedals. The church organist in February 2023 was Hervé Désarbre, organist of the French Ministry of Defense. Anne of Austria Anne of Austria ( French : Anne d'Autriche ; Spanish : Ana de Austria ; born Ana María Mauricia; 22 September 1601 – 20 January 1666)

4104-476: The sisters of the convent. It was designed with a passage through which the sisters could pass to the Chapel of the Saint-Sacrament, where they could receive communion from the altar. without being seen by anyone else in the church. The chapel of the Holy Sacrament is decorated with four medallions by the sculptor Anguier, as well as a painting "Christ Giving Communion to the Angels" by Jean-Baptiste de Champaigne . On

4176-474: The story of the queen's life in her Mémoires d'Anne d'Autriche . She was portrayed by Geraldine Chaplin in The Three Musketeers (1973 live-action film) and The Four Musketeers (1974 film) . She appears in a French film based on the life of Louis XIV, Le Roi danse , portrayed by Collette Emmanuelle, and King Louis portrayed by Benoît Magimel (2000). She was portrayed by Alexandra Dowling in

4248-458: The structure still carries. Upon Louis' death in 1643, Anne was named regent , despite his attempts to prevent her from obtaining the position. With the aid of Pierre Séguier , she had the Parlement of Paris revoke the will of the late king, which would have limited her powers. Their four-year-old son was crowned King Louis XIV of France. Anne assumed the regency but to general surprise entrusted

4320-524: The supervision of the royal governess Françoise de Lansac , who was disliked by Anne and loyal to the king and the cardinal. Richelieu made Louis XIII a gift of his palatial hôtel, the Palais Cardinal , north of the Louvre, in 1636, but the king never took possession of it. Anne left the Louvre Palace to install herself there with her two small sons and remained as regent, hence the name Palais-Royal that

4392-1126: The time, Anne had many admirers, including the handsome Duke of Buckingham , although her intimates believed their flirtations remained chaste. Historian Desmond Seward alleges that during his 1625 visit to France, when the French court took official leave of the English embassy at Amiens , "Buckingham climbed into a private garden where the Queen was taking an evening walk", and "may even have tried to rape her", although "Anne's shrieks summoned her attendants." Anne and Louis, both fourteen years old, were pressured to consummate their marriage in order to forestall any possibility of future annulment , but Louis ignored his bride. Louis's mother, Marie de' Medici , continued to conduct herself as queen of France, without showing any deference to her daughter-in-law. Anne, surrounded by her entourage of high-born Spanish ladies-in-waiting headed by Inés de la Torre , continued to live according to Spanish etiquette and failed to improve her French. In 1617, Louis conspired with his favourite Charles d'Albert de Luynes to dispense with

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4464-533: The tradition of cementing military and political alliances between France and Spain that began with the marriage of Philip II of Spain to Elisabeth of Valois in 1559 as part of the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis . Anne and Elisabeth were exchanged on the Isle of Pheasants between Hendaye and Fuenterrabía . She was lively and beautiful during her youth. She was also a noted equestrian , a taste her son, Louis, would inherit. At

4536-451: The wife of Louis XIV; and Philippe I of Orleans, the only brother of Louis XIV. The last person whose heart was placed there was the eldest son of Louis XVI, who died in 1789. In 1792 during the French Revolution,the urn of hearts, along with other contents of the church, were put on sale. The hearts were purchased by the painter Martin Drolling to serve as an ingredient for making "Mumie",

4608-457: Was Queen of France from 1615 to 1643 by marriage to King Louis XIII . She was also Queen of Navarre until the kingdom's annexation into the French crown in 1620. After her husband's death, Anne was regent to her son Louis XIV during his minority until 1651. Anne was born in Valladolid to King Philip III of Spain and Margaret of Austria . She was betrothed to King Louis XIII of France in 1612 and they married three years later. The two had

4680-452: Was 37. The official newspaper Gazette de France called the birth "a marvel when it was least expected". The birth of a living son failed to re-establish confidence between the royal couple. However, she conceived again fifteen months later. At Saint-Germain-en-Laye on 21 September 1640, Anne gave birth to her second son, Philippe I, Duke of Orléans , who later founded the modern House of Orléans . Both of her children were placed under

4752-472: Was always to be in the presence of one of her ladies-in-waiting. This was soon followed up by a purge of her household, where those officials loyal to the queen were replaced by those loyal to the king and the Cardinal. Consequently, count Jean de Galard de Bearn de Brassac, known to be loyal to Richelieu, was appointed chamberlain of her household, and his spouse Catherine de Brassac replaced Marie-Catherine de Senecey as her Première dame d'honneur to keep

4824-410: Was laid in 1645 by the child Louis XIV. Anne engaged François Mansart as the project's architect, but Mansart departed after only a year in disagreement over the scope and cost of the project. Mansard's place was taken first by Jacques Lemercier , then Pierre Le Muet . The church was finished in 1665 by Gabriel Le Duc. Le Duc was responsible for building the dome and cupola, the adjacent buildings, and

4896-400: Was long awaited, like the birth of Louis XIV. The upper level is supported by curving buttresses of stone and classical Corinthian columns. The semi-circular place in front of the church was inspired by the first plan of Mansard for the church, which featured an obelisk. Ornate iron grills separate the church and place from the street and end in stone pavilions, while two stone walls separate

4968-429: Was often taken to visit monasteries during her childhood. In 1611, she lost her mother, who died in childbirth. Despite her grief, Anne did her best to take care of her younger siblings, who referred to her with affection as their mother. At age eleven, Anne was betrothed to King Louis XIII of France. Her father gave her a dowry of 500,000 crowns and many beautiful jewels. For fear that Louis XIII would die early,

5040-511: Was painted by Pierre Mignard and completed in 1666. Mignard was a rival of another famous painter of the era, Charles Le Brun . The painting was commissioned by Anne of Austria in 1663 and was done in fresco , painted on wet plaster. Fresco was more difficult than painting with oils, as it did not allow for second thoughts. Val-de-Grâce’s fresco was the first of its size in Paris. Only smaller painted cupolas existed, one in Eglise des Carmes and

5112-465: Was referred to as Anne of Austria because the rulers of Spain belonged to the senior branch of the House of Austria , known later as the House of Habsburg, a designation relatively uncommon before the 19th century. Anne was raised mainly at the Royal Alcazar of Madrid . Unusually for a royal princess, Anne grew up close to her parents, who were very religious. She was raised to be religious too, and

5184-427: Was seven years old. The church of the Val-de-Grâce, designed by François Mansart and Jacques Lemercier , is considered by some as Paris's best example of baroque architecture (curving lines, elaborate ornamentation, and harmony of different elements). Construction began in 1645 and was completed in 1667. The Benedictine nuns provided medical care for injured revolutionaries during the French Revolution , and thus

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