The Church of Saint Anne (Hebrew: כנסיית סנטה אנה‎; Latin: Ecclesia S. Anna) is a French Roman Catholic church and French national domain located at the start of the Via Dolorosa, near the Lions' Gate and churches of the Flagellation and Condemnation, in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. During the Roman Period a pagan shrine to either the Egyptian god Serapis or the Roman god Asclepius, both gods of healing, stood on the grounds next to the two Pools of Bethesda. A Byzantine basilica was built over the remains of the shrine in the 5th century. Partially destroyed by the Persians in 614, it was subsequently restored. Baldwin I, the first titled Crusader king of Jerusalem, banished his wife Arda to the old Benedictine convent which still existed here in 1104. A small Crusader church, the so-called Moustier, was then erected over an extension of the northern Pool of Bethesda. The actual Church of St Anne was built sometime between 1131 and 1138, during the reign of Queen Melisende. It was erected near the remains of the Byzantine basilica, over the site of a grotto believed by the Crusaders to be the childhood home of the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus. It is dedicated to Anne and Joachim, the parents of Saint Mary, who according to tradition lived here. Unlike many other Crusader churches, St. Anne's was not destroyed after Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn's 1187 conquest of Jerusalem. In 1192 Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn, known in the West as Saladin, converted the building into a madrasa (Islamic educational institution), known as al-Madrasa as-Salahiyya (of Saladin), as is still written in the Arabic inscription above the entrance. In the 15th century it was considered as the most prestigious college in the city, counting among its more prominent students the Islamic jurist and city historian Mujir al-Din (1456–1522). During the renewed Muslim Ottoman rule of Palestine, Christian pilgrims were only permitted inside the grotto after paying a fee. Eventually the madrasa was abandoned and the former church building fell into disrepair. In 1856, in gratitude for French support during the Crimean War, the Ottoman Sultan Abdülmecid I presented it to Napoleon III. It was subsequently restored, but the majority of what remains today is original. The French government claims St. Anne belongs to the French government. Since 1878, it has been administered by the Missionaries of Africa, a catholic order, commonly called "The White Fathers", for the colour of their robes. Between 1882 and 1946, the site housed a seminar for the training of Greek-Catholic priests.