The heritage damage caused by the Val-de-Grâce explosion

While we cannot forget the tragic human toll of the explosion that took place at the Val-de-Grâce on 21 June, with at least one dead, four seriously injured and around fifty more slightly injured, it is nonetheless our duty to take stock of the very significant damage to property that was also caused by this tragedy.

1. Daniel Marot the Elder (1661 or 1663-1752)
View of the Church and Abbey of Val-de-Grâce, c. 1680
Etching - 27.3 x 39.2 cm
London, Royal Academy of Arts
Photo: Royal Academy of Arts

See the image in its page

2. North guardhouse of the Val-de-Grâce
before its restoration
Photo: Gabriel Ruprich-Robert/
Médiathèque de l’architecture
et du patrimoine

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Far from being a simple "building", as almost all the reports on the disaster described it, the edifice that collapsed in its entirety, 277 rue Saint-Jacques, was first and foremost a historic monument of major importance, built in the 17th century by Pierre Le Muet, the architect responsible for completing the Val-de-Grâce monastery built on the initiative of Anne of Austria.
As is often the case with classical architecture, the monument’s main courtyard is enclosed by a gate on either side of which the guard pavilions were built symmetrically (ill. 1).

The south pavilion, on the right as you look towards the church, had remained virtually intact, while the left pavilion, now destroyed, had been raised by two storeys, as can be seen in old photographs (ill. 2). During the restoration of the Val-de-Grâce, which began in 1975 under the direction of Yves Boiret, the chief architect of historic monuments, he removed the interfering storeys and restored the roof to its original state (ill. 3). It wasn’t very complex: in addition to period documents, all that was needed was to reproduce the one opposite (ill. 4).

3. Pierre Le Muet (1591-1669)
North guardhouse of the Val-de-Grâce
277 rue Saint Jacques, in 2011
Photo: LPLT (CC…