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132-624: In 1922, the École du génie (School of Engineering) of Versailles , was entrusted with the mission to train all officers and aircrew in aeronautics. The École militaire et d’application de l’Aéronautique (Military and Aeronautical School) was set up in 1925. The officer cadets from the non-commissioned officers' corps and young officers from the École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr and École Polytechnique attended training at Versailles for two years. For pilots, their training then continued at Avord and then Cazaux , where they trained in aerial combat and bombing. President Albert Lebrun created

264-575: A World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1979 for its importance as the centre of power, art, and science in France during the 17th and 18th centuries. The French Ministry of Culture has placed the palace, its gardens, and some of its subsidiary structures on its list of culturally significant monuments . In 1623, Louis XIII , king of France , built a hunting lodge on a hill in a favourite hunting ground, 19 kilometres (12 mi) west of Paris , and 16 kilometres (10 mi) from his primary residence,

396-668: A ballroom in the north wing, and the expansion of the king's private apartment , which required the demolition of the Ambassadors' Staircase. In 1748, Louis XV began construction of a palace theatre, the Royal Opera of Versailles at the northernmost end of the palace, but completion was delayed until 1770; construction was interrupted in the 1740s by the War of the Austrian Succession and then again in 1756 with

528-529: A salle de verdure , this bosquet contained a path encircling a central pentagonal area. In 1671, the bosquet was enlarged with a more elaborate system of paths that served to enhance the new central water feature, a fountain that resembled a mountain, hence the bosquets new name: Bosquet de la Montagne d'Eau . The bosquet was completely remodeled in 1704 at which time it was rechristened Bosquet de l'Étoile (Marie 1968, 1972, 1976, 1984; Thompson 2006; Verlet 1985). Created in 1670, this bosquet originally contained

660-460: A central rectangular pool surrounded by a turf border. Edging the pool were metal reeds that concealed numerous jets for water; a swan that had water jetting from its beak occupied each corner. The center of the pool featured an iron tree with painted tin leaves that sprouted water from its branches. Because of this tree, the bosquet was also known as the Bosquet du Chêne Vert . In 1705, this bosquet

792-615: A change in outlook as advocated by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the Philosophes , the winter of 1774–1775 witnessed a complete replanting of the gardens. Trees and shrubbery dating from the reign of Louis XIV were felled or uprooted with the intent of transforming the French formal garden of Le Nôtre and Hardouin-Mansart into a version of an English landscape garden . The attempt to convert Le Nôtre's masterpiece into an English-style garden failed to achieve its desired goal. Owing largely to

924-708: A distance of three-quarters of a mile. Citing repair and maintenance costs, Louis XVI ordered the Labyrinthe demolished in 1778. In its place, an arboretum of exotic trees was planted as an English-styled garden. Rechristened Bosquet de la Reine , it would be in this part of the garden that an episode of the Affair of the Diamond Necklace , which compromised Marie Antoinette , transpired in 1785 (Marie 1968, 1972, 1976, 1984; Perrault 1669; Thompson 2006; Verlet 1985). Originally designed by André Le Nôtre in 1661 as

1056-618: A dolphin. During the replantation of 1774–1775, both the bosquets were destroyed. The areas were replanted with lime trees and were rechristened the Quinconce du Nord and the Quinconce du Midi (Marie 1968, 1972, 1976, 1984; Thompson 2006; Verlet 1985). In 1665, André Le Nôtre planned a hedge maze of unadorned paths in an area south of the Latona Fountain near the Orangerie . (Loach, 1985) In 1669, Charles Perrault – author of

1188-478: A feature dubbed the enveloppe . This gave the château a new, Italianate façade overlooking the gardens, but preserved the courtyard façade, resulting in a mix of styles and materials that dismayed Louis XIV and that Colbert described as a "patchwork". Attempts to homogenize the two façades failed, and in 1670 Le Vau died, leaving the post of First Architect to the King vacant for the next seven years. Le Vau

1320-420: A forecourt to the château. But in 1668–69, as a response to the growth of the gardens, and victory over Spain in the War of Devolution , Louis XIV decided to turn Versailles into a full-scale royal residence. He vacillated between replacing or incorporating his father's château, but settled on the latter by the end of the decade, and from 1668 to 1671, Louis XIII's château was encased on three sides in

1452-586: A great influence on architecture and horticulture from the mid-17th century to the end of the 18th century. Examples of works influenced by Versailles include Christopher Wren 's work at Hampton Court Palace , Berlin Palace , the Palace of La Granja , Stockholm Palace , Ludwigsburg Palace , Karlsruhe Palace , Rastatt Palace , Nymphenburg Palace , Schleissheim Palace , and Esterházy Palace . The construction in 1668–1671 of Louis Le Vau 's enveloppe around

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1584-473: A halt when Louis Philippe was overthrown in 1848, though the paintings of French heroes and great battles still remain in the south wing. Emperor Napoleon III used the palace on occasion as a stage for grand ceremonies. One of the most lavish was the banquet that he hosted for Queen Victoria in the Royal Opera of Versailles on 25 August 1855. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871,

1716-509: A new restoration initiative – the "Grand Versailles" project – was started, which began with the replanting of the gardens, which had lost over 10,000 trees during Cyclone Lothar on 26 December 1999. One part of the initiative, the restoration of the Hall of Mirrors , was completed in 2006. Another major project was the further restoration of the backstage areas of the Royal Opera of Versailles in 2007 to 2009. The Palace of Versailles

1848-402: A protégé of Mazarin and enemy of Fouquet, and charged him with managing the corps of artisans in royal employment. Colbert acted as the intermediary between them and Louis XIV, who personally directed and inspected the planning and construction of Versailles. Work at Versailles was at first concentrated on gardens , and through the 1660s, Le Vau only added two detached service wings and

1980-403: A quatrefoil island surrounded by a channel that contained fifty water jets. Each lobe of the island contained a simple fountain; access to the island was obtained by two swing bridges. Beyond the channel and placed at the cardinal points within the bosquet were four additional fountains. Under the direction of Jules Hardouin-Mansart , the bosquet was completely remodeled in 1706. The central island

2112-537: A restored budget and large workforce of former soldiers. Mansart began his tenure with the addition from 1678 to 1681 of the Hall of Mirrors , a renovation of the courtyard façade of Louis XIII's château, and the expansion of d'Orbay's pavilions to create the Ministers' Wings in 1678–79. Adjacent to the palace, Hardouin-Mansart built a pair of stables called the Grande and Petite Écuries from 1679 to 1682 and

2244-485: A rooster, and Alexander the Great and Ptolemy surrounded by scholars and philosophers. The Automaton Clock was made for the King by the royal clockmaker Antoine Morand in 1706. When it chimes the hour, figures of Louis XIV and Fame descend from a cloud. Gardens of Versailles The Gardens of Versailles ( French : Jardins du château de Versailles [ʒaʁdɛ̃ dy ʃɑto d(ə) vɛʁsɑj] ) occupy part of what

2376-483: A suite of rooms was arranged for the use of the empress Marie-Louise , but the gardens were left unchanged, save for the disastrous felling of trees in the Bosquet de l'Arc de Triomphe and the Bosquet des Trois Fontaines . Massive soil erosion necessitated planting new trees. (Thompson 2006; Verlet 1985) With the restoration of the Bourbons in 1814, the gardens of Versailles witnessed the first modifications since

2508-641: A week, from six to ten in the evening, with various entertainments. This was originally a chapel. It was rebuilt beginning in 1712 under the supervision of the First Architect to the King , Robert de Cotte , to showcase two paintings by Paolo Veronese , Eleazar and Rebecca and Meal at the House of Simon the Pharisee , which was a gift to Louis XIV from the Republic of Venice in 1664. The painting on

2640-475: A year. In addition to the meticulous manicured lawns, parterres , and sculptures are the fountains, which are located throughout the garden. Dating from the time of Louis XIV and still using much of the same network of hydraulics as was used during the Ancien Régime , the fountains contribute to making the gardens of Versailles unique. On weekends from late spring to early autumn, the administration of

2772-596: Is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles , about 18 kilometres (11 mi) west of Paris , France . The palace is owned by the government of France and since 1995 has been managed, under the direction of the French Ministry of Culture , by the Public Establishment of the Palace, Museum and National Estate of Versailles . About 15,000,000 people visit

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2904-399: Is a visual history of French architecture from the 1630s to the 1780s. Its earliest portion, the corps de logis , was built for Louis XIII in the style of his reign with brick, marble, and slate , which Le Vau surrounded in the 1660s with Enveloppe , an edifice that was inspired by Renaissance-era Italian villas. When Jules Hardouin-Mansart made further expansions to the palace in

3036-475: Is currently owned by the French state. Its formal title is the Public Establishment of the Palace, Museum and National Estate of Versailles . Since 1995, it has been run as a Public Establishment, with an independent administration and management supervised by the French Ministry of Culture . The grounds of the palace hosted the equestrian competition during the 2024 Summer Olympics . The Palace of Versailles

3168-465: Is today at Versailles. (Hedin 1992; Thompson 2006; Verlet 1985) During this phase of construction, three of the garden's major bosquets were modified or created. Beginning with the Galerie des Antiques , this bosquet was constructed in 1680 on the site of the earlier and short-lived Galerie d'Eau (1678). This bosquet was conceived as an open-air gallery in which antique statues and copies acquired by

3300-662: The Académie de France in Rome were displayed. The following year, construction began on the Salle de Bal . Located in a secluded section of the garden west of the Orangerie , this bosquet was designed as an amphitheater that featured a cascade – the only one surviving in the gardens of Versailles. The Salle de Bal was inaugurated in 1685 with a ball hosted by the Grand Dauphin . Between 1684 and 1685, Jules Hardouin-Mansart built

3432-621: The Institut Supérieur de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace . In 2015, The École de l'air et de l'espace launched a MOOC titled Compréhension de l’Arme Aérienne (Understanding Air Power) on France Université Numérique 's platform. 43°37′09″N 5°06′36″E  /  43.61917°N 5.11000°E  / 43.61917; 5.11000 Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( / v ɛər ˈ s aɪ , v ɜːr ˈ s aɪ / vair- SY , vur- SY ; French : château de Versailles [ʃɑto d(ə) vɛʁsɑj] )

3564-578: The Mother Goose Tales – advised Louis XIV to remodel the Labyrinthe in such a way as to serve the Dauphin's education (Perrault, 1669). Between 1672 and 1677, Le Nôtre redesigned the Labyrinthe to feature thirty-nine fountains that depicted stories from Aesop's Fables . The sculptors Jean-Baptiste Tuby , Étienne Le Hongre , Pierre Le Gros , and the brothers Gaspard and Balthazard Marsy worked on these thirty-nine fountains each of which

3696-423: The Bosquet du Théâtre d'Eau , Île du Roi and Miroir d'Eau , the Salle des Festins ( Salle du Conseil ), the Bosquet des Trois Fontaines in 1671; the Labyrinthe and the Bosquet de l'Arc de Triomphe in 1672; the Bosquet de la Renommée ( Bosquet des Dômes ) and the Bosquet de l'Encélade in 1675; and the Bosquet des Sources in 1678 (Marie 1972, 1976; Thompson 2006; Verlet 1985). In addition to

3828-684: The Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye . The site, near a village named Versailles, was a wooded wetland that Louis XIII's court scorned as being generally unworthy of a king; one of his courtiers, François de Bassompierre , wrote that the lodge "would not inspire vanity in even the simplest gentleman". From 1631 to 1634, architect Philibert Le Roy replaced the lodge with a château for Louis XIII, who forbade his queen, Anne of Austria , from staying there overnight, even when an outbreak of smallpox at Saint-Germain-en-Laye in 1641 forced Louis XIII to relocate to Versailles with his three-year-old heir,

3960-511: The Colonnade . Located on the site of Le Nôtre's Bosquet des Sources , this bosquet featured a circular peristyle formed from thirty-two arches with twenty-eight fountains and was Hardouin-Mansart's most architectural of the bosquets built in the gardens of Versailles (Marie 1972, 1976; Thompson 2006; Verlet 1985) Due to financial constraints arising from the War of the League of Augsburg and

4092-515: The Grand Commun  [ fr ] , which housed the palace's servants and general kitchens, from 1682 to 1684. Hardouin-Mansart also added two entirely new wings in Le Vau's Italianate style to house the court, first at the south end of the palace from 1679 to 1681 and then at its north end from 1685 to 1689. War and the resulting diminished funding slowed construction at Versailles for

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4224-589: The Grand Parc were parceled and dispersed. Sensing the potential threat to Versailles, Louis Claude Marie Richard (1754–1821) – director of the jardins botaniques and grandson of Claude Richard – lobbied the government to save Versailles. He succeeded in preventing further dispersing of the Grand Parc and threats to destroy the Petit Parc were abolished by suggesting that the parterres could be used to plant vegetable gardens and that orchards could occupy

4356-461: The Grand Trianon restored and refurnished as a springtime residence for himself and his family, in the style of furnishing that it is seen today. In 1815, with the final downfall of Napoleon, Louis XVIII , the younger brother of Louis XVI, became king, and considered returning the royal residence to Versailles, where he had been born. He ordered the restoration of the royal apartments, but

4488-549: The Petit Trianon as a residence that would allow him to spend more time near the jardins botaniques . It was at the Petit Trianon that Louis XV fell fatally ill with smallpox; on 10 May 1774, the king died at Versailles. (Marie, 1984; Thompson, 2006) Upon Louis XVI 's ascension to the throne, the gardens of Versailles underwent a transformation that recalled the fourth building campaign of Louis XIV. Engendered by

4620-844: The Treaty of Paris at the Hôtel d'York (now 56 Rue Jacob) in Paris, granting the United States independence. On 4 September, Spain and France signed separate treaties with Britain at the Palace of Versailles, formally ending the war. The King and Queen learned of the Storming of the Bastille in Paris on 14 July 1789, while they were at the palace, and remained isolated there as the Revolution in Paris spread. The growing anger in Paris led to

4752-480: The War of the Spanish Succession , no significant work on the gardens was undertaken until 1704. Between 1704 and 1709, bosquets were modified, some quite radically, with new names suggesting the new austerity that characterized the latter years of Louis XIV's reign. (Marie 1976; Thompson 2006; Verlet 1985) With the departure of the king and court from Versailles in 1715 following the death of Louis XIV,

4884-546: The Women's March on Versailles on 5 October 1789. A crowd of several thousand men and women, protesting the high price and scarcity of bread, marched from the markets of Paris to Versailles. They took weapons from the city armoury, besieged the palace, and compelled the King and royal family and the members of the National Constituent Assembly to return with them to Paris the following day. As soon as

5016-446: The château neuf , with three rooms in each apartment facing the garden to the west and four facing the garden parterres to the north and south, respectively. The private apartments of the king (the appartement du roi and the petit appartement du roi ) and those of the queen (the petit appartement de la reine ) remained in the château vieux (old château). Le Vau's design for the state apartments closely followed Italian models of

5148-735: The grand appartement du roi . After the addition of the Hall of Mirrors (1678–1684) the king's apartment was reduced to five rooms (until the reign of Louis XV , when two more rooms were added) and the queen's to four. The queen's apartments served as the residence of three queens of France – Maria Theresa of Spain , wife of Louis XIV , Maria Leszczyńska , wife of Louis XV, and Marie Antoinette , wife of Louis XVI . Additionally, Louis XIV's granddaughter-in-law, Princess Marie-Adélaïde of Savoy , duchess of Burgundy, wife of Louis, Duke of Burgundy , occupied these rooms from 1697 (the year of her marriage) to her death in 1712. The Ambassadors' Staircase  [ fr ] ( Escalier des Ambassadeurs )

5280-503: The princes of the blood , Louis XIV's extended family, for influence over him. In the aftermath of the Fronde, Louis XIV became determined to rule alone. Following Mazarin's death in 1661, Louis XIV reformed his government to exclude his mother and the princes of the blood, moved the court back to Saint-Germain-en-Laye, and ordered the expansion of his father's château at Versailles into a palace. Louis XIV had hunted at Versailles in

5412-521: The École de l'air et de l'espace began an exchange program with the United States Air Force Academy , for eight cadets per school each year. The school first accepted women in 1976. Since 2008, The École de l'air et de l'espace also proposes two mastères spécialisés courses in aviation safety aircraft airworthiness and aerospace project management in partnership with the École nationale de l'aviation civile and

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5544-551: The École de l'air et de l'espace by Presidential decree in 1933. The school's first class began training November 4, 1935. The school's motto, Faire Face ("Overcoming") is a tribute to Capitaine Georges Guynemer , a World War I fighter ace In 1937, the school moved into still-unfinished buildings in Salon, Bouches-du-Rhône . The outbreak of World War II forced the school to relocate several times from 1939 to 1945, to sites including Bordeaux , Collioure , and Marrakech . It

5676-540: The 1650s, but did not take any special interest in Versailles until 1661. On 17 August 1661, Louis XIV was a guest at a sumptuous festival hosted by Nicolas Fouquet , the Superintendent of Finances , at his palatial residence, the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte . Louis XIV was impressed by the château and its gardens, which were the work of Louis Le Vau , the court architect since 1654, André Le Nôtre ,

5808-565: The 1680s, he used the Enveloppe as the model for his work. Neoclassical additions were made to the palace with the remodelling of the Ministers' Wings in the 1770s, by Ange-Jacques Gabriel , and after the Bourbon Restoration . The palace was largely completed by the death of Louis XIV in 1715. The eastern facing palace has a U-shaped layout, with the corps de logis and symmetrical advancing secondary wings terminating with

5940-584: The Commune at the end of May was directed from Versailles, and the prisoners of the Commune were marched there and put on trial in military courts. In 1875 a second parliamentary body, the French Senate , was created and held its meetings for the election of a President of the Republic in a new hall created in 1876 in the south wing of the palace. The French Senate and National Assembly continue to meet in

6072-643: The Dufour Pavilion on the south and the Gabriel Pavilion to the north, creating an expansive cour d'honneur known as the Royal Court (Cour Royale). Flanking the Royal Court are two enormous asymmetrical wings that result in a façade of 402 metres (1,319 ft) in length. Covered by around 10 hectares (1.1 million square feet) of roof, the palace has 2,143 windows, 1,252 chimneys, and 67 staircases. The palace and its grounds have had

6204-650: The King. The 7-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart played several works during his stay and later dedicated his first two harpsichord sonatas, published in 1764 in Paris, to Madame Victoria , daughter of Louis XV. In 1783, the palace was the site of the signing of the last two of the three treaties of the Peace of Paris (1783) , which ended the American Revolutionary War . On 3 September, British and American delegates, led by Benjamin Franklin , signed

6336-602: The Louis XIII's château provided a means by which, though the decoration of the garden façade, imagery in the decors of the grands appartements of the king and queen formed a symbiosis with the imagery of the gardens. (Lighthart, 1997; Mâle, 1927) With this new phase of construction, the gardens assumed the topographical and iconological design vocabulary that would remain in force until the 18th century. As André Félibien noted in his description of Versailles, solar and apollonian themes predominated with projects constructed at

6468-526: The Lycians into frogs. This episode from mythology has been seen by historians in reference as an allegory to the revolts of the Fronde , which occurred during the minority of Louis XIV. The link between Ovid's story and this episode from French history is emphasized by the reference to "mud slinging" in a political context. The revolts of the Fronde – the word fronde also means slingshot – have been regarded as

6600-703: The Revolution. In 1817, Louis XVIII ordered the conversion of the Île du Roi and the Miroir d'Eau into an English-style garden – the Jardin du Roi . (Thompson 2006) While much of the château's interior was irreparably altered to accommodate the Museum of the History of France dedicated to "all the glories of France" (inaugurated by Louis Philippe I on 10 June 1837), the gardens, by contrast, remained untouched. With

6732-614: The armistice in March 1871. In that month, the government of the new Third French Republic , which had departed Paris during the war for Tours and then Bordeaux , moved into the palace. The National Assembly held its meetings in the Opera House. The uprising of the Paris Commune in March 1871, prevented the French government, under Adolphe Thiers , from returning immediately to Paris. The military operation which suppressed

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6864-620: The base of the Satory hill south of the château. Later modifications in the garden would transform this fountain into the Bassin de Neptune . (Marie 1972, 1975; Thompson 2006; Verlet 1985) Excavated in 1678, the Pièce d'eau des Suisses – named for the Swiss Guards who constructed the lake – occupied an area of marshes and ponds, some of which had been used to supply water for the fountains in

6996-408: The botanic gardens and working farm of Louis XV were obliterated to create an English garden, called the "Anglo-Chinese" garden at the time, which stretched to the north and east of the Petit Trianon. Some of the exotic specimens from the botanic garden were preserved in the gardens, but most were brought to the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. A lake and several meandering rivers were formed as part of

7128-527: The caravels and yachts that were received from The Netherlands and the gondolas and gondoliers received as gifts from the Doge of Venice , hence the name. (Marie 1968; Nolhac 1901, 1925; Thompson 2006; Verlet 1985) Above and beyond the decorative and festive aspects of this garden feature, the Grand Canal also served a practical role. Situated at a low point in the gardens, it collected water it drained from

7260-470: The causeway was remodelled and most of the water jets were removed. A century later, in 1817, Louis XVIII ordered the Île du Roi and the Miroir d'Eau to be completely remodeled as an English-style garden. At this time, the bosquet was rechristened Jardin du Roi (Marie 1968, 1972, 1976, 1984; Thompson 2006; Verlet 1985). In 1671, André Le Nôtre conceived a bosquet – originally christened Salle des Festins and later called Salle du Conseil – that featured

7392-496: The ceiling illustrate mythological themes. The Salon of Mercury was the original State Bedchamber when Louis XIV officially moved the court and government to the palace in 1682. The bed is a replica of the original commissioned by King Louis-Philippe in the 19th century when he turned the palace into a museum. The ceiling paintings by the Flemish artist Jean Baptiste de Champaigne depict the god Mercury in his chariot, drawn by

7524-460: The ceiling over the door opposite the windows. This salon was used for serving light meals during evening receptions. The principal feature in this room is Jean Warin 's life-size statue of Louis XIV in the costume of a Roman emperor. On the ceiling in a gilded oval frame is another painting by Houasse, Venus subjugating the Gods and Powers (1672–1681). Trompe-l'œil paintings and sculpture around

7656-605: The ceiling, The Apotheosis of Hercules , by François Lemoyne , was completed in 1736, and gave the room its name. The Salon of Abundance was the antechamber to the Cabinet of Curios (now the Games Room), which displayed Louis XIV's collection of precious jewels and rare objects. Some of the objects in the collection are depicted in René-Antoine Houasse 's painting Abundance and Liberality (1683), located on

7788-432: The centralization of royal power. Louis XIV first used Versailles to promote himself with a series of nighttime festivals in its gardens in 1664, 1668, and 1674, the events of which were disseminated throughout Europe by print and engravings. As early as 1669, but especially from 1678, Louis XIV sought to make Versailles his seat of government, and he expanded the palace so as to fit the court within it. The moving of

7920-432: The classic past. (Berger I, 1985; Friedman, 1988,1993; Hedin, 1981–1982; Marie, 1968; Nolhac, 1901; Thompson, 2006; Verlet, 1961, 1985; Weber, 1981) One of the distinguishing features of the gardens during the second building campaign was the proliferation of bosquets. Expanding the layout established during the first building campaign, Le Nôtre added or expanded on no fewer that ten bosquets: The Bosquet du Marais in 1670;

8052-819: The construction of townhouses that resembled the palace began in 1671. The next year, the Franco-Dutch War began and funding for Versailles was cut until 1674, when Louis XIV had work begun on the Ambassadors' Staircase  [ fr ] , a grand staircase for the reception of guests, and demolished the last of the village of Versailles. Following the end of the Franco-Dutch War with French victory in 1678, Louis XIV appointed as First Architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart , an experienced architect in Louis XIV's confidence, who would benefit from

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8184-412: The construction of the Aile des Nobles (1685–1686), the Parterre du Nord was remodeled to respond to the new architecture of this part of the château. To compensate for the loss of the reservoir on top of the Grotte de Thétys and to meet the increased demand for water, Jules Hardouin-Mansart designed new and larger reservoirs situated due north of the Aile des Nobles (Thompson 2006). Construction for

8316-449: The court to Versailles did not come until 1682, however, and not officially, as opinion on Versailles was mixed among the nobility of France . By 1687, however, it was evident to all that Versailles was the de facto capital of France, and Louis XIV succeeded in attracting the nobility to Versailles to pursue prestige and royal patronage within a strict court etiquette, thus eroding their traditional provincial power bases. It

8448-400: The creation of the Museum of the History of France , dedicated to "all the glories of France", which had been used to house some members of the royal family. The museum was begun in 1833 and inaugurated on 30 June 1837. Its most famous room is the Galerie des Batailles (Hall of Battles), which lies on most of the length of the second floor of the south wing. The museum project largely came to

8580-421: The day, including the placement of the apartments on the main floor (the piano nobile , the next floor up from the ground level), a convention the architect borrowed from Italian palace design. The king's State Apartment consisted of an enfilade of seven rooms, each dedicated to one of the known planets and their associated titular Roman deity . The queen's apartment formed a parallel enfilade with that of

8712-478: The east–west axis just west and below the Parterre d'Eau , is the Bassin de Latone . Designed by André Le Nôtre, sculpted by Gaspard and Balthazar Marsy , and constructed between 1668 and 1670, the fountain depicted an episode from Ovid's Metamorphoses . Latona and her children, Apollo and Diana , being tormented with mud slung by Lycian peasants , who refused to let her and her children drink from their pond, appealed to Jupiter who responded by turning

8844-414: The east–west axis to the walls of the Grand Parc . During the Ancien Régime , the Grand Canal served as a venue for boating parties. In 1674, as a result of a series of diplomatic arrangements that benefited Louis XIV, the king ordered the construction of Petite Venise (Little Venice). Located at the junction of the Grand Canal and the junction of the northern transversal branch, Little Venice housed

8976-415: The east–west axis, these two bosquets were arranged as a series of paths around four salles de verdure and which converged on a central "room" that contained a fountain. In 1682, the southern bosquet was remodeled as the Bosquet de la Girondole , thus named due to spoke-like arrangement of the central fountain. The northern bosquet was rebuilt in 1696 as the Bosquet du Dauphin with a fountain that featured

9108-486: The exception of the state visit of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1855, at which time the gardens were a setting for a gala fête that recalled the fêtes of Louis XIV, Napoleon III ignored the château, preferring instead the château of Compiègne (Thompson 2006; Verlet 1985). With the arrival of Pierre de Nolhac as director of the museum in 1892, a new era of historical research began at Versailles. Nolhac, an ardent archivist and scholar, began to piece together

9240-438: The expansion of existing bosquets and the construction of new ones, there were two additional projects that defined this era, the Bassin des Sapins and the Pièce d'eau des Suisses . In 1676, the Bassin des Sapins , which was located north of the château below the Parterre du Nord and the Allée des Marmousets was designed to form a topological pendant along the north–south axis with the Pièce d'eau des Suisses located at

9372-430: The finance minister Nicolas Fouquet , who was accused by rivals of embezzling crown funds in order to build his luxurious château at Vaux-le-Vicomte , Louis XIV turned his attention to Versailles. With the aid of Fouquet's architect Louis Le Vau , painter Charles Le Brun , and landscape architect André Le Nôtre , Louis began an embellishment and expansion program at Versailles that would occupy his time and worries for

9504-606: The first landing of the staircase. The construction of the Hall of Mirrors between 1678 and 1686 coincided with a major alteration to the State Apartments. They were originally intended as his residence, but the King transformed them into galleries for his finest paintings, and venues for his many receptions for courtiers. During the season from All-Saints Day in November until Easter , these were usually held three times

9636-523: The fountains in the garden above. Water from the Grand Canal was pumped back to the reservoir on the roof of the Grotte de Thétys via a network of windmill-powered and horse-powered pumps. (Thompson 2006) Situated above the Latona Fountain is the terrace of the château, known as the Parterre d'Eau . Forming a transitional element from the château to the gardens below and placed on the north–south axis of

9768-429: The future Louis XIV . When Louis XIII died in 1643, Anne became Louis XIV's regent , and Louis XIII's château was abandoned for the next decade. She moved the court back to Paris, where Anne and her chief minister , Cardinal Mazarin , continued Louis XIII's unpopular monetary practices. This led to the Fronde , a series of revolts against royal authority from 1648 to 1653 that masked a struggle between Mazarin and

9900-502: The garden. This water feature, with a surface area of more than 15 hectares, is the second largest – after the Grand Canal – at Versailles. (Marie 1972, 1975; Nolhac 1901, 1925; Thompson 2006; Verlet 1985) Modifications in the gardens during the third building campaign were distinguished by a stylistic change from the natural esthetic of André Le Nôtre to the architectonic style of Jules Hardouin Mansart . The first major modification to

10032-524: The garden; two twin octagonal basins were constructed and decorated with bronze statues representing the four main rivers of France. In the same year, Le Vau's Orangerie , located to south of the Parterrre d'Eau was demolished to accommodate a larger structure designed by Jules Hardouin-Mansart. In addition to the Orangerie , the Escaliers des Cent Marches , which facilitated access to the gardens from

10164-527: The gardens along with the château were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List for their cultural importance during the 17th and 18th centuries. With Louis XIII's final purchase of lands from Jean-François de Gondi in 1632 and his assumption of the seigneurial role of Versailles in the 1630s, formal gardens were laid out west of the château. Records indicate that late in the decade Claude Mollet and Hilaire Masson designed

10296-593: The gardens at Versailles, Louis XV – an avid botanist – directed his efforts at Trianon. In the area now occupied by the Hameau de la Reine , Louis XV constructed and maintained les jardins botaniques – the botanical gardens . In 1750, the year in which les jardins botaniques were constructed, the Jardinier-Fleuriste , Claude Richard (1705–1784), assumed administration of the botanical gardens. In 1761, Louis XV commissioned Ange-Jacques Gabriel to build

10428-447: The gardens during the reign of Louis XVI was the Grotte des Bains d'Apollon . The rockwork grotto set in an English style bosquet was the masterpiece of Hubert Robert in which the statues from the Grotte de Thétys were placed. (Thompson 2006; Verlet 1985) At the Petit Trianon, which was gifted to Marie Antoinette by Louis XVI in 1774, the new Queen dramatically relandscaped the surrounding parkland and gardens. Between 1776 and 1786,

10560-633: The gardens during this phase occurred in 1680 when the Tapis Vert – the expanse of lawn that stretches between the Latona Fountain and the Apollo Fountain – achieved its final size and definition under the direction of André Le Nôtre. (Nolhac 1901; Thompson 2006) Beginning in 1684, the Parterre d'Eau was remodeled under the direction of Jules Hardouin-Mansart. Statues from the Grande Commande of 1674 were relocated to other parts of

10692-463: The gardens, the Parterre d'Eau provided a setting in which the imagery and symbolism of the decors of the grands appartements synthesized with the iconography of the gardens. In 1664, Louis XIV commissioned a series of statues intended to decorate the water feature of the Parterre d'Eau . The Grande Commande , as the commission is known, comprised twenty-four statues of the classic quaternities and four additional statues depicting abductions from

10824-411: The gardens, which remained relatively unchanged until the expansion ordered under Louis XIV in the 1660s. This early layout, which has survived in the so-called Du Bus plan of c.1662, shows an established topography along which lines of the gardens evolved. This is evidenced in the clear definition of the main east–west and north–south axis that anchors the gardens' layout. In 1661, after the disgrace of

10956-505: The gardens. Existing bosquets and parterres were expanded and new ones created. Most significant among the creations at this time were the Versailles Orangerie and the "Grotte de Thétys". (Nolhac 1901, 1925) The Orangery, which was designed by Louis Le Vau , was located south of the château, a situation that took advantage of the natural slope of the hill. It provided a protected area in which orange trees were kept during

11088-470: The grotto and were surrounded by various fountains and water features. (Marie 1968; Nolhac 1901, 1925; Thompson 2006; Verlet 1985) Technically, the "'Grotte de Thétys" played a critical role in the hydraulic system that supplied water to the garden. The roof of the grotto supported a reservoir that stored water pumped from the Clagny pond and which fed the fountains lower in the garden via gravity. Located on

11220-471: The history of Versailles, and subsequently established the criteria for restoration of the château and preservation of the gardens, which are ongoing to this day. (Thompson 2006; Verlet 1985) Owing to the many modifications made to the gardens between the 17th and the 19th centuries, many of the bosquets have undergone multiple modifications, which were often accompanied by name changes. These two bosquets were first laid out in 1663. Located north and south of

11352-488: The installation of the statuary by the Gilles Guérin , François Girardon , Thomas Regnaudin , Gaspard Marsy , and Balthazar Marsy , the grotto formed an important symbolic and technical component to the gardens. Symbolically, the "Grotte de Thétys" related to the myth of Apollo – and by that association to Louis XIV. It was as the cave of the sea nymph Thetis , where Apollo rested after driving his chariot to light

11484-399: The larger – Île du Roi – contained an island that formed the focal point of a system of elaborate fountains. The Île du Roi was separated from the Miroir d'Eau by a causeway that featured twenty-four water jets. In 1684, the island was removed and the total number of water jets in the bosquet was significantly reduced. The year 1704 witnessed a major renovation of the bosquet at which time

11616-514: The more costly endeavours for the museum and the French Fifth Republic has been to repurchase as much of the original furnishings as possible. Consequently, because furniture with a royal provenance – and especially furniture that was made for Versailles – is a highly sought-after commodity on the international market, the museum has spent considerable funds on retrieving much of the palace's original furnishings. In 2003,

11748-647: The museum sponsors the Grandes Eaux – spectacles during which all the fountains in the gardens are in full play. Designed by André Le Nôtre, the Grand Canal is the masterpiece of the Gardens of Versailles. In the Gardens too, the  Grand Trianon  was built to provide the Sun King with the retreat he wanted. The  Petit Trianon  is associated with Marie Antoinette , who spent her time there with her closest relatives and friends. In 1979,

11880-701: The new landscaping and the architect Richard Mique was entrusted with designing follies to embellish the gardens like the Grotto, the Belvedere and the Temple of Love . Beyond the "Anglo-Chinese" garden, the Hameau de la Reine was built between 1782 and 1788, designed by Mique and Hubert Robert. In 1792, under order from the National Convention , some of the trees in gardens were felled, while parts of

12012-610: The north-east, by the National Arboretum de Chèvreloup to the north, the Versailles plain (a protected wildlife preserve) to the west, and by the Satory Forest to the south. Administered by the Public Establishment of the Palace, Museum and National Estate of Versailles , an autonomous public entity operating under the aegis of the French Ministry of Culture , the gardens are now one of the most visited public sites in France, receiving more than six million visitors

12144-481: The objective was to restore the palace to its state – or as close to it as possible – in 1789 when the royal family left the palace. Among the early projects was the repair of the roof over the Hall of Mirrors; the publicity campaign brought international attention to the plight of post-war Versailles and garnered much foreign money including a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation . One of

12276-473: The open areas of the garden. These plans were never put into action; however, the gardens were opened to the public – it was not uncommon to see people washing their laundry in the fountains and spreading it on the shrubbery to dry. (Thompson 2006) In 1793 most of the decorative pieces of the Triumphal Arch Grove were destroyed. The Napoleonic era largely ignored Versailles. In the château,

12408-452: The origin of the use of the term "mud slinging" in a political context. (Berger, 1992; Marie, 1968, 1972, 1976; Nolhac, 1901; Thompson, 2006; Verlet, 1961, 1985; Weber, 1981) Further along the east–west axis is the Bassin d'Apollon – the Apollo Fountain. Occupying the site of Rondeau/Bassin des Cygnes of Louis XIII, the Apollo Fountain, which was constructed between 1668 and 1671, depicts

12540-404: The outside of Louis XIII 's red brick and white stone château added state apartments for the king and the queen. The addition was known at the time as the château neuf (new château). The grands appartements (Grand Apartments, also referred to as the State Apartments ) include the grand appartement du roi and the grand appartement de la reine . They occupied the main or principal floor of

12672-501: The palace and gardens entered an era of uncertainty. In 1722, Louis XV and the court returned to Versailles. Seeming to heed his great-grandfather's admonition not to engage in costly building campaigns, Louis XV did not undertake the costly building campaigns at Versailles that Louis XIV had. During the reign of Louis XV, the only significant addition to the gardens was the completion of the Bassin de Neptune (1738–1741). (Marie 1984; Verlet 1985) Rather than expend resources on modifying

12804-470: The palace in joint session on special occasions, such as the amendment of the Constitution of France . The end of the 19th and the early 20th century saw the beginning of restoration efforts at the palace, first led by Pierre de Nolhac , poet and scholar and the first conservator, who began his work in 1892. The conservation and restoration were interrupted by two world wars but have continued until

12936-535: The palace the de facto capital of France. This state of affairs was continued by Kings Louis XV and Louis XVI , who primarily made interior alterations to the palace, but in 1789 the royal family and French court returned to Paris. For the rest of the French Revolution , the Palace of Versailles was largely abandoned and emptied of its contents, and the population of the surrounding city plummeted. Napoleon , following his coronation as Emperor , used

13068-465: The palace was occupied by the general staff of the victorious German Army. Parts of the château, including the Hall of Mirrors, were turned into a military hospital. The creation of the German Empire , combining Prussia and the surrounding German states under William I , was formally proclaimed in the Hall of Mirrors on 18 January 1871. The Germans remained in the palace until the signing of

13200-437: The palace, including the furniture, mirrors, baths, and kitchen equipment, were sold in seventeen thousand lots. All fleurs-de-lys and royal emblems on the buildings were chambered or chiselled off. The empty buildings were turned into a storehouse for furnishings, art and libraries confiscated from the nobility. The empty grand apartments were opened for tours beginning in 1793, and a small museum of French paintings and art school

13332-444: The palace, park, or gardens of Versailles every year, making it one of the most popular tourist attractions in the world. Louis XIII built a hunting lodge at Versailles in 1623. His successor, Louis XIV expanded the château into a palace that went through several expansions in phases from 1661 to 1715. It was a favourite residence for both kings, and in 1682, Louis XIV moved the seat of his court and government to Versailles, making

13464-480: The palace. More work took place after World War II, with the restoration of the Royal Opera of Versailles . The theatre was reopened in 1957, in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. In 1978, parts of the palace were heavily damaged in a bombing committed by Breton terrorists . Starting in the 1950s, when the museum of Versailles was under the directorship of Gérald van der Kemp,

13596-582: The present day. The palace returned to the world stage in June 1919, when, after six months of negotiations, the Treaty of Versailles , formally ending the First World War, was signed in the Hall of Mirrors . Between 1925 and 1928, the American philanthropist and multi-millionaire John D. Rockefeller, Jr. gave $ 2,166,000, the equivalent of about thirty million dollars today, to restore and refurbish

13728-419: The remainder of his reign. From this point forward, the expansion of the gardens of Versailles followed the expansions of the château. Accordingly, Louis XIV's building campaigns apply to the gardens as well. At every stage the prescribed tour was carefully managed, under the Sun King's directions. In 1662, minor modifications to the château were undertaken; however, greater attention was given to developing

13860-530: The remodelling of the courtyard façade in the Italianate style. Louis XIV and Hardouin-Mansart focused on a permanent palace chapel , the construction of which lasted from 1699 to 1710. Louis XIV's successors, Louis XV and Louis XVI , largely left Versailles as they inherited it and focused on the palace's interiors. Louis XV's modifications began in the 1730s, with the completion of the Salon d'Hercule ,

13992-404: The rest of the 17th century. The Nine Years' War , which began in 1688, stopped work altogether until 1698. Three years later, however, the even more expensive War of the Spanish Succession began and, combined with poor harvests in 1693–94 and 1709–10, plunged France into crisis. Louis XIV thus slashed funding and cancelled some of the work Hardouin-Mansart had planned in the 1680s, such as

14124-552: The royal family departed, the palace was closed. In 1792, the National Convention , the new revolutionary government, ordered the transfer of all the paintings and sculptures from the palace to the Louvre . In 1793, the Convention declared the abolition of the monarchy and ordered all of the royal property in the palace to be sold at auction. The auction took place between 25 August 1793 and 11 August 1794. The furnishings and art of

14256-427: The royal family to the Château de Saint-Cloud ahead of more renovations to the Palace of Versailles, but construction could not begin because of financial difficulty and political crisis . In 1789, the French Revolution swept the royal family and government out of Versailles forever. The Palace of Versailles was key to Louis XIV's politics, as an expression and concentration of French art and culture , and for

14388-400: The royal gardener since 1657, and Charles Le Brun , a painter in royal service since 1647. Vaux-le-Vicomte's scale and opulence led him to imprison Fouquet that September, as he had also built an island fortress and a private army. But Louis XIV was also inspired by Vaux-le-Vicomte, and he recruited its authors for his own projects. Louis XIV replaced Fouquet with Jean-Baptiste Colbert ,

14520-506: The ruinously expensive Canal de l'Eure was inaugurated in 1685; designed by Vauban it was intended to bring waters of the Eure over 80 kilometres, including aqueducts of heroic scale, but the works were abandoned in 1690: see The problem of water . Between 1686 and 1687, the Bassin de Latone, under the direction of Jules Hardouin-Mansart, was rebuilt. It is this version of the fountain that

14652-399: The shortcomings of Versailles and began to expand the château and the gardens once again. (Verlet, 1961, 1985) Between 1664 and 1668, a flurry of activity was evidenced in the gardens – especially with regard to fountains and new bosquets; it was during this time that the imagery of the gardens consciously exploited Apollo and solar imagery as metaphors for Louis XIV. Le Vau's enveloppe of

14784-478: The sky. The grotto was a freestanding structure located just north of the château. The interior, which was decorated with shell-work to represent a sea cave, contained the statue group by the Marsy brothers depicting the sun god attended by nereids (central grouping) and his horses being groomed by attendants of Thetis (the two accompanying statue groups). Originally, these statues were set in three individual niches in

14916-467: The south, to the Pièce d'Eau des Suisses , and to the Parterre du Midi were constructed at this time, giving the gardens just south of the château their present configuration and decoration. Additionally, to accommodate the anticipated construction of the Aile des Nobles – the north wing of the château – the Grotte de Thétys was demolished. (Marie 1968, 1972, 1976; Nolhac 1899, 1901, 1902, 1925) With

15048-573: The staircase were trompe-l'œil paintings of people from the Four Parts of the World looking into the staircase over a balustrade, a motif repeated on the ceiling fresco. There they were joined by allegorical figures for the twelve months of the year and various Classical Greek figures such as the Muses . A marble bust of Louis XIV, sculpted by Jean Warin in 1665–66, was placed in a niche above

15180-462: The staircase – famously lit naturally with a skylight – so as to overawe visitors. The staircase and walls of the room that contained it were clad in polychrome marble and gilded bronze, with decor in the Ionic order. Charles Le Brun painted the walls and ceiling of the room according to a festive theme to celebrate Louis XIV's victory in the Franco-Dutch War . On the wall immediately above

15312-607: The start of the Seven Years' War . These wars emptied the royal treasury and thereafter construction was mostly funded by Madame du Barry , Louis XV's favourite mistress. In 1771, Louis XV had the northern Ministers' Wing rebuilt in Neoclassical style by Ange-Jacques Gabriel , his court architect, as it was in the process of falling down. That work was also stopped by financial constraints, and it remained incomplete when Louis XV died in 1774. In 1784, Louis XVI briefly moved

15444-441: The subsidiary palace, Grand Trianon , as a summer residence from 1810 to 1814, but did not use the main palace. Following the Bourbon Restoration , when the king was returned to the throne, he resided in Paris and it was not until the 1830s that meaningful repairs were made to the palace. A museum of French history was installed within it, replacing the courtiers apartments of the southern wing. The palace and park were designated

15576-406: The sun god driving his chariot to light the sky. The fountain forms a focal point in the garden and serves as a transitional element between the gardens of the Petit Parc and the Grand Canal . (Marie 1968; Nolhac 1901, 1925; Thompson 2006; Verlet 1985) With a length of 1,500 metres and a width of 62 metres, the Grand Canal , which was built between 1668 and 1671, physically and visually prolongs

15708-584: The task and cost was too great. Louis XVIII had the far end of the south wing of the Cour Royale demolished and rebuilt (1814–1824) to match the Gabriel wing of 1780 opposite, which gave greater uniformity of appearance to the front entrance. Neither he nor his successor Charles X lived at Versailles. The French Revolution of 1830 brought a new monarch, Louis-Philippe to power, and a new ambition for Versailles. He did not reside at Versailles but began

15840-444: The time: "Since the sun was the emblem of Louis XIV, and that poets join the sun and Apollo, there is nothing in this superb house that does not relation to this divinity." (Félibien, 1674). Three additions formed the topological and symbolic nexus of the gardens during this phase of construction: the completion of the "Grotte de Thétys", the " Bassin de Latone ", and the " Bassin d'Apollon ". Started in 1664 and finished in 1670 with

15972-516: The topology of the land, the English esthetic was abandoned and the gardens replanted in the French style. However, with an eye on economy, Louis XVI ordered the palissades – the labour-intensive clipped hedging that formed walls in the bosquets – to be replaced with rows of lime trees or chestnut trees. Additionally, a number of the bosquets dating from the time of the Sun King were extensively modified or destroyed. The most significant contribution to

16104-485: The winter months. (Nolhac 1899, 1902) The "Grotte de Thétys", which was located to the north of the château, formed part of the iconography of the château and of the gardens that aligned Louis XIV with solar imagery. The grotto would be completed during the second building campaign. (Verlet 1985) By 1664, the gardens had evolved to the point that Louis XIV inaugurated the gardens with the fête galante called Les Plaisirs de l’Île enchantée . The event, which officially

16236-565: Was accompanied by a plaque on which the fable was printed, with verse written by Isaac de Benserade ; from these plaques, Louis XIV's son learned to read. Once completed in 1677, the Labyrinthe contained thirty-nine fountains with 333 painted metal animal sculptures. The water for the elaborate waterworks was conveyed from the Seine by the Machine de Marly . The Labyrinthe contained fourteen water-wheels driving 253 pumps, some of which worked at

16368-399: Was an imperial staircase built from 1674 to 1680 by François d'Orbay . Until Louis XV had it demolished in 1752 to create a courtyard for his private apartments, the staircase was the primary entrance into the Palace of Versailles and the royal apartments especially. It was entered from the courtyard via a vestibule that, cramped and dark, contrasted greatly with the tall, open space of

16500-563: Was at the Palace of Versailles that Louis XIV received the Doge of Genoa , Francesco Maria Imperiale Lercari in 1685, an embassy from the Ayutthaya Kingdom in 1686, and an embassy from Safavid Iran in 1715. Louis XIV died at Versailles on 1 September 1715 and was succeeded by his five-year-old great-grandson, Louis XV , then the duke of Anjou , who was moved to the Château de Vincennes and then to Paris by Louis XV's regent, Philippe II, Duke of Orléans . Versailles

16632-466: Was destroyed in order to allow for the creation of the Bosquet des Bains d'Apollon , which was created to house the statues had once stood in the Grotte de Thétys . During the reign of Louis XVI, Hubert Robert remodeled the bosquet, creating a cave-like setting for the Marsy statues. The bosquet was renamed the Grotte des Bains d'Apollon (Marie 1968, 1972, 1976, 1984; Thompson 2006; Verlet 1985). Originally designed in 1671 as two separate water features,

16764-401: Was neglected until 1722, when Philippe II removed the court to Versailles to escape the unpopularity of his regency, and when Louis XV began his majority. The 1715 move, however, broke the cultural power of Versailles, and during the reign of Louis XVI , courtiers spent their leisure in Paris, not Versailles. During Christmas 1763, Mozart and his family visited Versailles and dined with

16896-702: Was not until 1946 that the school returned to the now-completed campus at Salon. The school received the Legion of Honor and the Croix de Guerre from President Vincent Auriol in 1947. Other specialized schools joined the École de l'air et de l'espace , including the École du commissariat de l'Air , which trains administrative, legal, and financial officers, in 1953, and the Cours Spécial de l'École de l'air et de l'espace (CSEA), which trains exchange cadets from French-speaking African countries, in 1973. In 1969,

17028-473: Was once the Domaine royal de Versailles , the royal demesne of the château of Versailles . Situated to the west of the palace , the gardens cover some 800 hectares of land, much of which is landscaped in the classic French formal garden style perfected here by André Le Nôtre . Beyond the surrounding belt of woodland, the gardens are bordered by the urban areas of Versailles to the east and Le Chesnay to

17160-679: Was opened in some of the empty rooms. By virtue of an order issued by the Versailles district directorate in August 1794, the Royal Gate was destroyed, the Cour Royale was cleared and the Cour de Marbre lost its precious floor. When Napoleon became Emperor of the French in 1804, he considered making Versailles his residence but abandoned the idea because of the cost of the renovation. Prior to his marriage with Marie-Louise in 1810, he had

17292-535: Was succeeded at Versailles by his assistant, architect François d'Orbay . Work at the palace during the 1670s focused on its interiors, as the palace was then nearing completion, though d'Orbay expanded Le Vau's service wings and connected them to the château, and built a pair of pavilions for government employees in the forecourt. In 1670, d'Orbay was tasked by Louis XIV with designing a city, also called Versailles , to house and service Louis XIV's growing government and court. The granting of land to courtiers for

17424-453: Was to celebrate his mother, Anne d'Autriche , and his consort Marie-Thérèse but in reality celebrated Louise de La Vallière , Louis' mistress, was held in May of that year. Guests were regaled with fabulous entertainments in the gardens over a period of one week. As a result of this fête – particularly the lack of housing for guests (most of them had to sleep in their carriages), Louis realized

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