Tag Archives: 17th century

Le Val de Grâce

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In 1645, seven-year-old Sun King Louis XIV, and his mother, Anne of Austria, laid the first stone of the Val de Grâce church. The queen mother this fulfilled an oath she had made earlier, to thank God for giving her a son.

Up until the French Revolution, the ^Val de Grâce was the church of the Royal Val de Grâce Abbey. It is located on the grounds of the Val de Grâce hospital. Thanks to the Benedictine nuns providing medical care to injured revolutionaries, the church was spared much of the desecration and vandalism churches such as Notre Dame and Saint Eustace suffered during the French Revolution. Still, it became a military teaching hospital in 1796.

It remained a military hospital until 2016 and treated normal patients as well as the French presidents Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy during their respective mandates.

Today, only the training, research and museum activities remain on site. In 2020, the French president Emmanuel Macron announced it would house three new research institutes, a campus to be completed by 2028.

Location of the Val de Grâce
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The Paris Observatory

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The Paris Observatory was founded in 1667 under Sun King Louis XIV and is the oldest observatory in the world still in operation.

It was to be situated on the Paris Meridian (today at 2°20′ East),  which was for a long time in competition with the Greenwich meridian. On Solstice Day 1667, mathematicians traced the lines on the ground where the observatory was to be built. The Paris meridian bisected the site. Today, it is traced on the ground inside the observatory, and the Avenue de l’Observatoire runs along its axis.

The Paris Meridian can also be traced in the city of Paris by the Arago medallions. 135 originally, some of them have disappeared since 1994. They are named after François Arago, director of the Observatory in the 19th century.

The first directors of the Observatory were four generations of Cassinis: Giovanni Domenico Cassini, Jacques Cassini, César François Cassini de Thury and Jean Dominique Comte de Cassini. They held the office until the French Revolution.

The copula of the observatory houses the Arago telescope. Completed in 1854, it was the biggest of its time, and remained in use for over a hundred years. In the 1880, it conducted photometry measurements of Jupiter’s moons (only four were known at the time, though).

Location of the Paris observatory
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La Sorbonne

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The Sorbonne is a building in the 5th arrondissement in the Latin Quarter. It is named after 13th-century theologist Robert de Sorbon, founder of the Sorbonne College of the Université de Paris, college of theology. The term Sorbonne is also used as metonym for the former Université de Paris (1200-1793 and 1896-1971).

The Baroque façade belongs to the Saint Ursula chapel, completed in 1642. Following the law of the separation between Church and State, it was deconsecrated and is now used for receptions and exhibitions.
It was at the Sorbonne that Pierre de Coubertin founded the International Olympic Committee in 1894.

Today, the Sorbonne is the seat of the Paris Board of Education. It also houses part of the activities of the universities Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris 3 Sorbonne Nouvelle and Sorbonne Université. The Sorbonne University Library serves all these universities and the Université de Paris.

Location of the Sorbonne
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Le Dôme des Invalides

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The Hôtel des Invalides (remember: not every hôtel is a hotel) is a building complex built on the orders of the Sun King Louis XIV for the invalids of his armies.
Today it is still true to its initial purpose, but in addition to a retirement home for war veterans, it houses the Army Museum, the military models museum Musée des Plans-Reliefs, the Museum of contemporary history, two churches (at the time one was for the soldiers, one for the royal family) as well as the tombs of several French war heroes. And of course, the tomb of Napoléon Bonaparte who died 200 years ago this year in exile.

The Dôme des Invalides can’t be mistaken for another one – it is covered in 12kg of gold that glitters in the sunlight.

The Esplanade des Invalides on an ordinary day and on Bastille Day (July 14)
Location of the Hôtel des Invalides
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Cupolas of Paris

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There are a number of cupolas in the Paris skyline. In this new series, Cupolas of Paris, we will have a look at the most prominent ones and what is hidden below them:

  • The Dôme des Invalides – 7th arrondissement – built under Sun King Louis XIV in the 17th century
  • The Panthéon – 5th arrondissement – built in the 18th century
  • The Sorbonne – 5th arrondissement – built in the 17th century
  • The Observatory – 14th arrondissement – built under Sun King Louis XIV in the 17th century
  • The Val de Grâce – 5th arrondissement – built under Sun King Louis XIV in the 17th century
  • The Institut de France – 6th arrondissement – built under Sun King Louis XIV in the 17th century
1 Invalides – 2 Panthéon – 3 Sorbonne – 4 Observatory – 5 Val de Grâce – 6 Institut de France
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The oldest tree in Paris

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The oldest tree in Paris, a locust tree, stands only a stone’s throw from Notre Dame. In fact, you can see the cathedral from the tree, and presumably, the tree from the cathedral.

The species’ Latin name Robinia pseudoacacia, honors the royal French botanist Jean Robin, who introduced the tree in France. It was he who planted this particular specimen 400 years ago in what is now the Square René Viviani, a small city park in the 5th arrondissement, near the well-known bookshop Shakespeare and Company.

Ready for some history? When the tree was planted in 1602, Henri IV was king of France. He was the protestant king who converted to Catholicism and promulgated the Edict of Nantes, which gave Protestants religious liberties and effectively ending the bloody Wars of Religion.

Henri’s son and successor, the future Louis XIII, was one year old, and Henri himself was still nine years away from being assassinated. The tree’s next-door neighbor, Notre Dame cathedral, was already 250 years old.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, the Brit Bartholomew Gosnold, reached Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket.

Location of the oldest tree on a map of Paris
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