The Chateau

Louis XIV’s childhood had been spent in the fear and disorder of a civil war between rival bands of aristocrats, the ‘Fronde’, and associated Paris with intrigue and violence. He wanted a Palace outside, but near, Paris, and chose to build at Versailles, where his father, Louis XIII (1601-1643), had built a simple hunting lodge. Louis XIV wanted to organize and completely control a government of France centered upon his person, an absolute monarchy. Visiting his finance minister, Nicolas Fouquet, who had built the finest chateau and garden in France at Vaux-le-Vicomte, he was entertained with a fete which was one of the most magnificent in French history, Louis decided to build a chateau which was even grander and finer. Fouquet’s achievement was his undoing as together with his mismanagement of funds and Louis made jealous by the magnificent chateau and fete, he was arrested in 1661, banished and then sentenced to life imprisonment.

Using the same ‘design team’ as Fouquet – architect Louis Le Vau, decorator Charles Le Brun, and garden designer Andre Le Notre - Versailles was designed to be the most glorious palace in Europe. It is still dazzling in its opulence. Louis IV took up residence in May 1682 before construction was completed and while Mansart, the architect who took over from Le Vau, was still overseeing 36,000 laborers and soldiers. Versailles would become the official residence of the Court of France, supplanting the Louvre palaces, and at its height 20,000 courtiers lived there.
The Chateau was added to in the 18th century, during the reigns of Louis XV and Louis XVI. The royal family and the court were forced to leave Versailles on October 6, 1789, after the first days of the French Revolution.

Inside the Chateau:
On the first floor are the private apartments of the king and queen composed around the Marble Courtyard. On the garden side are the state apartments of official court life.

Hall of Mirrors - where great state occasions were held. It was here the Treaty of Versailles was signed in 1919 ending World War I.

Park & Gardens:

Formal Gardens– Geometric flower beds and fountains in perfect harmony with the Chateau

Grand Trianon - Built in 1687, a small Palace of white and pink marble where Louis XIV could escape from the formality of the Chateau and entertain his last mistress, Madame de Maintenon. The charm of the Trianon resides in its floral decoration, a motif that recurs in woodwork, paintings, and flowerbeds. Also a favorite place of Napoleon.

Petit Trianon - built in 1768 for Louix XV and his mistress Mme de Pompadour, it became the favorite residence of Marie Antoinette.

Hameau – in 1783 Marie-Antoinette had a make-believe rustic hamlet built which was actually a small working farm. Here the queen played at being a shepherdess. Rousseau’s vision of “returning to the simplicity of nature” was in vogue at the time but the cost of this artificial farm was millions of francs. Marie-Antoinette’s extravagancy caused her to be hated by the French people and was one of the factors leading to the French revolution in 1789.

The Grand Canal – setting for Louis XIV’s boating parties.