Versailles itself served as a royal residence for a little more than a century—from 1682 until 1789, when the French Revolution began. [33] The museum project largely came to a halt when Louis Philippe was overthrown in 1848, though the paintings of French heroes and great battles still remain in the south wing. This salon was used for serving light meals during evening receptions. A monumental painting by Vernet features Louis Philippe himself, with his sons, posing in front of the gates of the Palace. This presented the daunting problem to Louis XIV's engineers of how to transport water uphill over such a distance. Palace of Versailles, former French royal residence and center of government, now a national landmark. At the far north end of the wing is the Opéra Royal, built under Louis XV by Ange-Jacques Gabriel. Initially constructed as a hunting lodge for King Louis XIII, the royal family's love for the estate saw the movement of the royal court from Paris to Versailles in 1682 by King Louis XIV, Louis XIII’s son. After he became King in 1610, Louis XIII returned to the village, bought some land, and in 1623-24 built a modest two-story hunting lodge on the site of the current marble courtyard. Trompe-l'œil paintings and sculpture around the ceiling illustrate mythological themes. The decoration includes several paintings set into the paneling, including a self-portrait of Antony Van Dyck.[62]. [78] Beyond the fountain, the Grand Canal extends 1800 meters to the south end of the park. Below the fireplace is a painting of Clio, the Muse of History, recording the exploits of the King. [94], The character of the "piss boy" in Mel Brooks' film History of the World: Part 1 is based on a real job at the palace. The King ordered a further enlargement, which he entrusted to the young architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart. King Louis XIV, the Sun King, spent nearly 50 years expanding the palace, and in1682, he moved both the royal residence and French seat of government to Versailles. The centerpiece is a painting of the King titled, "The King Governing Alone". [13] In the 1670s and 1680s, 10 million livres worth of solid silver furniture was commissioned to designs by Le Brun, including tubs for Louis XIV's orange trees, an 8 foot high sculpted throne, and a silver balustrade in the Salon of Mercury. sfn error: no target: CITEREFLacaille2012pages_16-17 (, sfn error: no target: CITEREFLacaille2012pages_18 (, sfn error: no target: CITEREFLacaille2013page_13 (, Site of the Public Establishment of the Chateau of Versailles (en.chateauversailles.fr). Glass chandeliers adorn the arched, ornately painted ceiling, upon which Le Brun depicted a series of 30 scenes glorifying the early years of the reign of Louis XIV. [83] There was no fresh water tap above ground level until the reign of Louis XV, and even then it was limited to the King's private kitchen and his personal bathroom. The ground floor gallery of the south wing was prone to this, to the extent that iron bars had to be installed in the corridor outside the rooms of the Dauphin Louis and the Dauphine when they moved to the south wing in 1745. [66], The Royal Chapel has been under renovation for 767 days. The features closest to the Palace are the two water parterres, large pools which reflect the façade of the palace. It leads to the bedroom in which Louis XIV died and that Louis XV occupied from 1722 to 1738. [28] The Queen was at the Petit Trianon in July 1789 when she first learned of the beginning of the French Revolution. The private apartments of the queen, Marie-Antoinette, and the living quarters of the captain of the guard are also found on the ground floor. During the reign of Louis XV, the Queen, Marie Leszczyńska, used this salon as a music room, organizing concerts of secular and religious music each Sunday. By the mid-eighteenth century, other members of the royal family, the King's mistress Madame du Barry, and certain high-level courtiers had also installed their own water closets. Flanking the Royal Court to the south is the Dufour Pavilion, while the Gabriel Pavilion lies to the north. The gallery is more than 70 metres (230 ft) long, and it is lined with 17 wide arcaded mirrors, designed to match and reflect the windows opposite facing the gardens. King Henry IV went hunting there in 1589, and returned in 1604 and 1609, staying in the village inn. During the season from All-Saints Day in November until Easter, these were usually held three times a week, from six to ten in the evening, with various entertainments. These were sources of continual stench, polluting nearby rooms and causing issues of blockage and sewage leaks from the iron and lead pipes which drained the privies on the upper floors. /!\ On Wednesday the 12th of September, the Palace of Versailles and the Gardens will exceptionnally be closed from 2:00 p.m. The original residence was primarily a hunting lodge and private retreat for Louis XIII (reigned 1610–43) and his family. 111 25 March – 18 April to Sr. Lois and Sr. de Villers silversmiths who are working on a silver balustrade for the king, for continued work (two payments): 40,000 livres, II. France's Fifth Republic expenditures alone, directed to restoration and maintenance at Versailles, may have surpassed those of the Sun King. The palace was largely completed by the death of Louis XIV in 1715. It is difficult – if not impossible – to give an accurate rate of exchange between 1682 and today. [54] The staircases’ primal function and the details it encompasses reinforces this progression at Versailles. They were originally designed to be viewed from the terrace on the west side of the palace, and to create a grand perspective that reached to the horizon, illustrating the king's complete dominance over nature. Some art historians criticized the Royal Gate as a modern interpretation of the original rather than a true restoration, but it served an undeniably valuable role in directing visitor traffic. [59], The Salon of Mercury was the original State Bedchamber when Louis XIV officially moved the court and government to the Palace in 1682. Courtiers gathered in the Hall to watch the King walk from his apartments to the chapel, and sometimes took the occasion to present him with requests. Marie Antoinette enjoyed entertainment and was influential in choosing shows to be put on at Court. The King wished a quiet place to relax away from the ceremony of the Court. Some are now decorated with contemporary works of art. The additions were designed by such renowned architects as Jules Hardouin-Mansart, Robert de Cotte, and Louis Le Vau. Perhaps the most-famous room in the palace is the Hall of Mirrors (1678–89). The first floor of the central building houses the lavish apartments of the king and queen as well as numerous salons for entertaining guests and members of court. Louis XIII, a big hunter, decided to establish a small brick and stone chateau there. The Palace of Versailles was declared the official royal residence in 1682 and the official residence of the court of France on May 6, 1682, but it was abandoned after the death of Louis XIV in 1715. [21] He also replaced Le Vau's large terrace, facing the garden on the west, with what became the most famous room of the palace, the Hall of Mirrors. The queen's apartment formed a parallel enfilade with that of the grand appartement du roi. [100] For example, the Parliament met in joint session at Versailles to pass constitutional amendments in June 1999 (for domestic applicability of International Criminal Court decisions and for gender equality in candidate lists), in January 2000 (ratifying the Treaty of Amsterdam), and in March 2003 (specifying the "decentralized organization" of the French Republic). André Le Nôtre began transforming the park and gardens of Versailles in the early 1660s. These are decorated with smaller works of sculpture, representing the rivers of France, which are placed so as not to interfere with the reflections in the water. [111] In December 1689, to defray the cost of the War of the League of Augsburg, Louis XIV ordered all the silver furniture and articles of silver at Versailles – including chamber pots – sent to the mint to be melted. Ayers 2004,also includes 700 rooms. Built of red brick and cut stone embellishments, the U-shaped layout surrounds a black-and-white marble courtyard. [73], Hardouin-Mansart designed a much grander fountain of four oval tiers forming a pyramid, topped by Gaspard Marsy's statue and enhanced all around with the semi-human figures of Balthazard Marsy and an assortment of gilded frogs and lizards sculpted by Claude Bertin. Get exclusive access to content from our 1768 First Edition with your subscription. The Dragon Fountain is one of the oldest at Versailles and has the highest jet of water, twenty-seven meters. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Under the guidance of Louis XIV (reigned 1643–1715), the residence was transformed (1661–1710) into an immense and extravagant complex surrounded by stylized French and English gardens. The Opéra Royal hosted the National Assembly from 1871 until the proclamation of the Third Republic in 1875, and the Senate met there from March 8, 1876, until the legislature returned to Paris in 1879. The Peace Salon; Louis XV sharing benefits of peace by François Lemoyne, The Galerie des Glaces or Hall of Mirrors, Guerdirons or candle holders in the Hall of Mirrors, Relief of Louis XIV in the Salon of War, by Antoine Coysevox (1715). King Louis XIV (the longest-reigning monarch in European history) embarked on a project to extend his father’s former hunting lodge into a palace of gargantuan proportions, and simultaneously to cement his authority as absolute ruler. It took the place of the rooftop terrace overlooking the gardens which formerly connected the apartments of the King and Queen. The central painting on the ceiling, by Charles de la Fosse, depicts the Sun Chariot of Apollo, the King's favorite emblem, pulled by four horses and surrounded by the four seasons. Louis XVI was constrained by the worsening financial situation of the kingdom from making major changes to the palace, so that he primarily focused on improvements to the royal apartments. It was turned into a concert room between 1684 and 1750, with galleries for musicians on either side. They were bordered with high trees and carefully trimmed in cubic forms to resemble rooms with walls of greenery. Other buildings on the Versailles domaine cannot be excluded from the palace of Versailles history. 129 21 March to Sr. Jehannot de Bartillay 4,970 livres 12 sols for the delivery to Sr. Lois and de Villers silversmiths for, with 136,457 livres 5 sol to one and 25,739 livres 10 sols to another, making the 38 balusters, 17 pilasters, the base and the cornice for the balustrade for the château of Versailles weighing 4,076 marc at the rate of 41 livres the marc[c] including 41 livres 2 sols for tax: 4,970 livres 12 sols. These buildings had nearly-flat roofs covered with lead. Annual Report of the Regional Committee on Tourism of the Ile-de-France Region, cited in. [14][15] These items were melted down in 1689 to contribute to the cost of fighting the Nine Years' War. Palace of Versailles, a place of great history. The Salon of Apollo was the royal throne room under Louis XIV, and was the setting for formal audiences. [53] At the time of its creation, Versailles was transitioning to reflect governmental power and authority instead of a private home for the crown. “But for a long time now Versailles has no longer been the property of a monarchy, nor does it belong to history. His son, King Louis XIV, also named Sun King, who reigned 72 years from 1643 to 1715, commissioned in 1661, the design of the great Versailles Gardens.. In the center is The Glory of the Father Announcing the Coming of the Messiah by Antoine Coypel, above the altar is The Resurrection of Christ, and above the royal gallery is The Holy Spirit Descending Upon the Virgin and the Apostles. Some of the objects in the collection are depicted in René-Antoine Houasse's painting Abundance and Liberality (1683), located on the ceiling over the door opposite the windows. Louis XIII, King of France since 1610, commissioned in 1623 a hunting lodge in the village of Versailles near Paris. 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. Additionally, this project, which took over seven years to achieve,has required several hundred kilograms of silver and gold to complete. For everyone else, water was carried by a small army of water carriers to the upper floors, filling copper tanks in the private appartements of the courtiers. Omissions? The project was revived and rushed ahead for the planned celebration of the marriage of the Dauphin, the future Louis XVI, and Marie-Antoinette. References to the greater world, such as the depiction of the twelve months of the year and the four parts of the world, circle back to Louis XIV's mentality of Versailles symbolizing supreme and divine power which in turn, reflects Louis XIV's desired depiction of his reign. In the early morning of October 6, 1789, hundreds of starving, defiant women and men (some disguised as women) from Paris stormed the palace of Versailles… Portraits of Louis XV and his Queen, Marie Leszczinska, by the Flemish artist Carle Van Loo decorate the room today. Dozens of marble busts, depicting Roman deities and emperors, adorn the facades overlooking the court, and the central buildings of the palace complex rise around it. Each set of apartments was connected to the ground floor with a ceremonial stairway, and each had seven rooms, aligned in a row; a vestibule, a room for the guards, an antechamber, chamber, a large cabinet or office; a smaller bedroom, and a smaller cabinet. [81] Over one thousand citrus trees, palms, Oleanders, Pomegranate and Olive trees, along with other tender plants, are housed inside the walls of the Orangerie during the winter; they are taken out onto the parterre bas from mid-May until mid-October. 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 January 18, 1871. It was designed by Le Brun and made by the sculptor Jean-Baptiste Tuby at the Gobelins Manufactory between 1668 and 1670, cast in lead and then gilded. [41] After the war when Soviet authorities were restoring the palace, which had been gutted by the retreating Nazi forces, they recreated the silk fabrics by using preserved 18th-century remnants. The two apartments were separated by a marble terrace, overlooking the garden, with a fountain in the center. Please select which sections you would like to print: Corrections? Gilded statues and reliefs border its marble walls. It began with the original château, with the brick and stone and sloping slate mansard roofs of the Louis XIII style used by architect Philibert Le Roy. France's kings were first attracted to Versailles because of the area's prolific game. A country village with only a church and a small castle, Versailles in the early 17th century was teeming with wildlife. [96], In 1668 Louis XIV decided to build a smaller palace some distance from the main palace, where he could spend quieter time away from the crowds and formality of his Court. It is decorated today largely as it was under Napoleon and Louis-Philippe. In 1783, the Palace was the site of the signing of three treaties of the Peace of Paris (1783), in which the United Kingdom recognized the independence of the United States. [30], As soon as the royal family departed, the Palace was closed, awaiting their return—but in fact, the monarchy would never again return to Versailles. Saule & Meyrer 2000, pp. As of 4 April 2008, silver has been trading in New York at US$17.83 an ounce. [25] He commissioned Gabriel to rebuild it in a more neoclassical style. 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