The Val-de-Grâce (; Hôpital d'instruction des armées du Val-de-Grâce or HIA Val-de-Grâce) was a military hospital located at 74 boulevard de Port-Royal in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, France. It was closed as a hospital in 2016.

History

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 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 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 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 last emperor of Vietnam, Bảo Đại, died at the modern Val-de-Grâce hospital on 30 July 1997, aged 83.

People buried at Val-de-Grâce

Val-de-Grâce was later the traditional burial place for members of the House of Orléans, a cadet branch of the House of Bourbon:

  • Mademoiselle de Valois (1693–94), daughter of Philippe II, Duke of Orléans
  • Louis, Duke of Orléans (1703–52)
  • Margravine Auguste of Baden-Baden, duchesse d'Orléans (1704–26)
  • Louise Marie, Mademoiselle (1726–28), daughter of Margravine Auguste who died in childbirth giving birth to Louise Marie
  • Louis Philippe (1725–85), son of Louis
  • Louise Henriette de Bourbon (1726–59), wife of the above
  • Françoise Marie de Bourbon (1677–1749), only her heart was buried here

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File:Val de Grace dsc04629.jpg | Modern hospital

File:Ancienne abbaye Val-de-Grace cloitre jardin.jpg | Former abbey of Val-de-Grâce in Paris: view of the cloister and its French formal garden

File:Exterior of Église du Val-de-Grâce 006.jpg | Statue of Dominique Jean Larrey, sculpted by David d'Angers in 1843

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See also

  • French Defence Health service
  • List of hospitals in France

References

  • Photos of the church interior