No. 12

    Val-de-Grâce

    Place Alphonse-Laveran, 5e

    Pierre Mignard’s fresco in the dome of the Val-de-Grâce
    The dome of the Val-de-Grâce. 23 March 2019, 12:27. Opens Section II

    Anne of Austria built the church within a royal abbey in thanksgiving for the birth of Louis XIV in 1638, and the young king laid its first stone in 1645. François Mansart began it; Jacques Lemercier, Pierre Le Muet and Gabriel Le Duc carried it through. Pierre Mignard painted the dome fresco in the 1660s, a heavenly glory of some two hundred figures; the photograph that opens this section looks straight up into it. The church is now served by the French military diocese.

    Recorded visits

    One recorded visit.

    • 23 March 2019

    Sources

    Ministère des Armées, Val-de-Grâce site booklet; Ministère de la Défense (SGA/DMPA), concert program, 11 Nov 2012; National Gallery of Art; Dayton Art Institute; POP Mérimée PA00088392.

    Photographs: Lud

    Hoc est opus. Et satis est.