THE PALACE
FROM THE SEAT OF POWER TO THE MUSEUM OF THE HISTORY OF FRANCE
The Château de Versailles, which has been on UNESCO’s World Heritage List for 30 years, is one of the most beautiful achievements of 18th-century French art. The site began as Louis XIII’s hunting lodge before his son Louis XIV transformed and expanded it, moving the court and government of France to Versailles in 1682. Each of the three French kings who lived there until the French Revolution added improvements to make it more beautiful.
The Hall of Mirrors, the King’s Grand Apartments, the Museum of the History of France. The Château de Versailles, the seat of power until 1789, has continued to unfurl its splendour over the course of centuries. At first it was just a humble hunting lodge built by Louis XIII. But Louis XIV chose the site to build the palace we know today, the symbol of royal absolutism and embodiment of classical French art.
In the 1670s Louis XIV built the Grand Apartments of the King and Queen, whose most emblematic achievement is the Hall of Mirrors designed by Mansart, where the king put on his most ostentatious display of royal power in order to impress visitors. The Chapel and Opera were built in the next century under Louis XV.
The château lost its standing as the official seat of power in 1789 but acquired a new role in the 19th century as the Museum of the History of France, which was founded at the behest of Louis-Philippe, who ascended to the throne in 1830. That is when many of the château’s rooms were taken over to house the new collections, which were added to until the early 20th century, tracing milestones in French history.
In the 1670s Louis XIV built the Grand Apartments of the King and Queen, whose most emblematic achievement is the Hall of Mirrors designed by Mansart, where the king put on his most ostentatious display of royal power in order to impress visitors. The Chapel and Opera were built in the next century under Louis XV.
The château lost its standing as the official seat of power in 1789 but acquired a new role in the 19th century as the Museum of the History of France, which was founded at the behest of Louis-Philippe, who ascended to the throne in 1830. That is when many of the château’s rooms were taken over to house the new collections, which were added to until the early 20th century, tracing milestones in French history.
Gardens and Park of the Château
A COLOSSAL UNDERTAKING
From the central window of the Hall of mirrors the visitor look down on the grand perspective that leads the gaze from the Water Parterre to the horizon. This original perspective, which preceded the reign of Louis XIV, was developed and prolonged by the gardener André Le Nôtre by widening the Royal Path and digging the Grand Canal. This vast perspective stretches from the façade of the Château de Versailles to the railings of the park.
In 1661, Louis XIV commissioned André Le Nôtre with the design and laying out of the gardens of Versailles which, in his view, were just as important as the Château. The works were undertaken at the same time as those for the palace and took forty years to complete. But André Le Nôtre did not work alone: Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Superintendent of the King’s Buildings, directed the project from 1664 to 1683; Charles Le Brun, appointed First Painter of the King in January 1664, produced the drawings for a large number of statues and fountains; and, a little later, the architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart drew up increasingly understated scenic plans and built the Orangerie. Lastly, the King had all the projects submitted to him and wanted the “details of everything”.
The laying out of the gardens required enormous work. Vast amounts of earth had to be shifted to lay out the flower beds, the Orangerie, the fountains and the Canal, where previously only woods, grasslands and marshes were. The earth was transported in wheelbarrows, the trees were conveyed by cart from all the provinces of France and thousands of men, sometimes whole regiments, took part in this vast enterprise.
Since 1992, the gardens have been gradually replanted, and after the devastating storm of December 1999, the work speeded up to such an extent that quite a few sections have already been restored to their original appearance.
The Grand Trianon
MANSART ARCHITECTURE
In 1687 Jules Hardouin Mansart built the Grand Trianon, probably the most refined group of buildings anywhere in the domain of Versailles, on the site of the “Porcelain Trianon”, which Louis XIV had had erected in 1670 to escape the pomp and rigid formality of court life with his mistress Madame de Montespan.
"A little pink marble and porphyry palace with delightful gardens" is how Mansart described it. He closely followed the specifications of Louis XIV, who was deeply involved in the design process. Visitors cannot help falling under the spell of the elegantly proportioned, single-storey palace radiating a sense of cosiness, sweetness and grandeur all at once. Italian architecture heavily influenced the architecture of the building, which stands between a courtyard and garden. A balustrade once graced with vases, statues of groups of children and sculpted figures conceals the flat roof.
The “Marble Trianon” is famous for its orderly, geometrical French-style gardens “filled with all sorts of orange blossoms and green shrubbery” (Félibien). It has always been surrounded by tens of thousands of hardy perennials and tuberoses buried in pots enabling them to be changed every day, putting on a flowering, fragrant show. The plants create a dazzling décor that brilliantly enlivens the architecture, which is entirely open to the gardens.
Louis XIV occupied the Grand Trianon, where he also housed his sister-in-law the Princess Palatine, his son-in-law the duc de Chartres and his daughter the duchesse de Bourbon. It was beloved by Marie Leszczynska, who lived here in summer. Marie-Antoinette gave several performances here but preferred the Petit Trianon, which Louis XVI had given her as a present.
Napoleon Bonaparte had the palace restored before staying here on many occasions with his second wife, Empress Marie-Louise. In 1963 Charles de Gaulle had it restored as a guesthouse for presidents of France and the northern wing, known as “Trianon-sous-bois”, was converted into an official presidential residence.
Visitors might agree with Félibien, who said “graces and cupids form what is most perfect in the most beautiful and most magnificent works of art” at Trianon. The Trianon’s original furniture was scattered during the French Revolution; most of the present pieces date from the First Empire. Napoleon had the palace entirely refurnished and sometimes came here with Marie-Louise.
Marie-Antoinette's estate
THE QUEEN’S RESIDENCE
From the Petit Trianon to the Queen’s Gardens, passing by the Hamlet, the Estate, opened in 2006, reveals Marie-Antoinette’s private life. Louis XVI’s wife loved this place where she could return to the pleasures of simple, rural pursuits, away from the pomp of Versailles.
The Petit Trianon and its park are indissociably linked to the memory of Queen Marie-Antoinette. She is the only queen to have imposed her personal taste on Versailles. Sweeping away the old court and its traditions, she insisted on living as she wished. In her Trianon domain, which Louis XVI gave her in 1774, she found the heaven of privacy that enabled her to escape from the rigours of court etiquette. Nobody could come there without her invitation.
The reinstatement of the compound which shows most of the former arrangement: enclosing walls, gates, grills and saut-de-loup [Wolf’s jump] – shows the Petit Trianon domain as a guarded, preserved place, centred on its château. This arrangement shows the eclecticism and refinement of Marie-Antoinette, an art of living linked to free thinking, for the spirit of the Enlightenment was far from absent here.
Since 2007, the domain has been accessed from the Maison du Suisse, that is, the Porter, who not only held the keys of the Petit Trianon, but also had the power to allow visits to it in the Queen’s absence.
The Queen’s Hamlet
THE APPEAL OF RUSTIC STYLE
In 2014, the restoration works of the Queen’s House and the Warming Room will begin thanks to the support of Dior.
Marie-Antoinette, seeking to flee the Court of Versailles, ordered the construction of her hamlet in 1783. There, she regularly found the charms of country life, surrounded by her lady's companions. It became a veritable farm, directed by a farmer, whose products supplied the kitchens of the Palace. Under the First Empire, the Hamlet was refurnished with refinement for Empress Marie-Louise.
No sooner had the first garden in the area around Petit Trianon been finished than Marie-Antoinette was thinking about creating another, as an extension towards Saint-Anthony’s gate. On this new territory, the Queen developed an aspect started earlier by Louis XV with the Menagerie of Trianon: the taste for rustic style. Between 1783 and 1787, the Hamlet was thus created in the spirit of a true Norman village, with eleven houses spread out around the Big lake. Five of them were reserved for the use of the Queen and her guests: the Queen’s House, Billiard Room, Boudoir, Mill and Refreshments Dairy. While four houses were reserved for the occupancy of the peasants: the Farm and its annexes, the Barn, the Dovecote and Preparation Dairy. The Farm was located outside the village and sheltered a varied livestock: a small herd of eight cows and a bull, ten goats and pigeons. One house was reserved for domestic use: the Warming Room, where the dishes were prepared for the dinners given at the Queen’s House or at the Mill.
Each house had its own little garden, planted with firm and round Savoy cabbage, cauliflower and artichokes, surrounded by a hornbeam hedge and enclosed by a fence of chestnut trees. The banisters of the staircases, galleries and balconies were adorned with blue and white earthenware pots of Saint-Clement containing hyacinths, quarantaine flowers, wallflowers or geraniums. Small orchards of apple trees and cherry trees were planted. Climbing plants covered the walls of the houses and arbours shading certain paths. A swing was built in 1785 for the royal children, and then quickly dismounted. In 1788, a bowls playing area was also created. The Malborough Tower, a sort of beacon towering above the banks of the Big lake, was the point of departure for boat rides or fishing outings.
The hall of Mirrors
THE HALL OF MIRRORS
The Grande Galerie (La Grande Galerie in French), as it was called in the 17th century, served daily as a passageway and a waiting and meeting place, frequented by courtiers and the visiting public.
After the victory over the three united powers, represented in the Salon de la Guerre (War Room) and cited on the previous page, the gallery’s seventy-three metres glorified the political, economic and artistic success of France. Political success is demonstrated by thirty compositions in the arch painted by Le Brun, which illustrate the glorious history of Louis XIV in the first eighteen years of his government, from 1661 until the Peace of Nijmegen. Military and diplomatic victories, as well as reforms in view of the reorganisation of the kingdom, are portrayed in the form of antique allegories. Economic prosperity is demonstrated by the dimensions and quantity of the three hundred and fifty-seven mirrors that decorate the seventeen arches opposite the windows, attesting that the new French production of mirrors, which at the time were luxury objects, is capable of stealing the monopoly away from Venice. Artistic success: the Rance marble pilasters decorated with a model of gilded bronze capitals called “French order”; created by Le Brun at the request of Colbert, this new model represents national emblems: a fleur de lys topped by a royal sun between two French cockerels.
The Grand Gallery (La Grande Galerie in French), as it was called in the 17th century, was used daily by courtiers and visitors for passing through, waiting and for meeting people. It was only used for ceremonies on exceptional occasions, when sovereigns wanted to lend splendour to diplomatic receptions, or distractions (balls or games) on the occasion of princely weddings. For the first, the throne was installed on a podium at the end of the hall, next to the Salon de la Paix (Peace Room) with its closed arch. The show of power rarely reached such a degree of ostentation; thus, the doge of Genoa in 1685 and the ambassadors of Siam (1686), Persia (1715), and the Ottoman Empire (1742) had to cross the entire hall, watched by the Court gathered on each side of the terraces! There were also the wedding celebrations of the Duke of Burgundy, grandson of Louis XIV, in 1697, of the son of Louis XV in 1745 and the masked ball for the wedding of Marie-Antoinette and the Dauphin, the future Louis XVI, in May 1770. It was also here that the treaty of Versailles was signed on 28th June 1919, which sealed the end of the First World War. Since then, the presidents of the Republic of France continue to receive the official hosts of France here.
The Grand Gallery (La Grande Galerie in French), as it was called in the 17th century, was used daily by courtiers and visitors for passing through, waiting and for meeting people. It was only used for ceremonies on exceptional occasions, when sovereigns wanted to lend splendour to diplomatic receptions, or distractions (balls or games) on the occasion of princely weddings. For the first, the throne was installed on a podium at the end of the hall, next to the Salon de la Paix (Peace Room) with its closed arch. The show of power rarely reached such a degree of ostentation; thus, the doge of Genoa in 1685 and the ambassadors of Siam (1686), Persia (1715), and the Ottoman Empire (1742) had to cross the entire hall, watched by the Court gathered on each side of the terraces! There were also the wedding celebrations of the Duke of Burgundy, grandson of Louis XIV, in 1697, of the son of Louis XV in 1745 and the masked ball for the wedding of Marie-Antoinette and the Dauphin, the future Louis XVI, in May 1770. It was also here that the treaty of Versailles was signed on 28th June 1919, which sealed the end of the First World War. Since then, the presidents of the Republic of France continue to receive the official hosts of France here.
The Hall of Mirrors was restored in 2007 thanks to the sponsorship of skills of the company Vinci, great sponsor of the Ministry of Culture and Communication.
THE WAR SALON
Mansart started to build the Salon de la Guerre (War Room) in 1678. The decoration, completed by Le Brun in 1686, glorifies the military victories that led to the Peace of Nijmegen. The walls are covered with marble panels decorated with six trophies and gilded bronze carvings. The wall on the Apollo Room side has an oval plasterwork bas-relief representing Louis XIV on horseback trampling over his enemies. This masterpiece by Coysevox is surmounted by two gilded Renommées supported by two prisoners in chains. Above, in the bas-relief that eclipses the opening of a false fireplace, Clio is writing the history of the King for the future. The ceiling, which was painted by Le Brun, represents France in the centre, armed and sitting on a cloud, surrounded by Victories. A portrait of Louis XIV decorates her shield. The ceiling panels portray the king’s three conquered enemies: Germany, kneeling, with an eagle; Spain, threatening, with a roaring lion and Holland, upside down on a lion. The fourth panel represents Bellone, Goddess of war, enraged between Rebellion and Discord.
THE PEACE SALON
The Peace Room features the same decoration of marble panel and trophies of gilded bronze and carved weapons as in the War Room, to which is symmetrical. However, Le Brun decorated the cupola and the ceiling panels with the benefits of the peace given to Europe by France. At the end of the reign of Louis XIV, this room was separated from the hall by a mobile partition and considered part of the Queen’s Grand Apartment, of which it became the last room. It was here that, under the reign of Louis XV, Marie Leszczinska gave lay or religious concerts every Sunday, which played an important role in the musical life of Versailles, and which were perpetuated under the reign of Marie-Antoinette.
André Le Nôtre
CONTROLLER GENERAL OF THE KING’S GARDENS (1613-1700)
The king of gardeners and the King’s own gardener, Le Nôtre made the French formal garden famous throughout Europe. He designed the finest gardens of the 17th century and made Versailles into his absolute masterpiece. His talents earned him a colossal fortune and an international reputation.
Biography
In the service of the monarchy since 1635, Le Nôtre began his career as gardener of Gaston d’Orléans, an uncle of Louis XIV. Born into a family of gardeners to the king beginning in the 16th century, he was trained in the Tuileries gardens which he modified between 1666 and 1672, creating the vast perspective of the Champs-Elysées. His work for Fouquet in Vaux-le-Vicomte in 1656-61 brought him glory and fortune.
Louis XIV summoned him to Versailles in 1662 when he was working on the gardens of Chantilly for the Grand Condé. Starting from the base of the primitive garden of Louis XIII, Le Nôtre laid out close to the Château two large parterres, the north and south parterres. He remodelled the great east-west axis which he intended to prolong in an endless perspective. While he kept the natural slope of the northern section, the rest was remodelled by human labour.
At Versailles, Le Nôtre refined his gardening concepts: the principal walks cut by secondary walks surrounding the groves; trellises and tree-covered archways formed vast walls of greenery that emphasized the perspectives; side or winding paths led to the groves in order to ensure the surprise of the spectator; original decors and water effects contrasted with the rigorous symmetry of the wooded masses. Using all the resources of water, Le Nôtre created a play on shadow and sunlight by alternating shady places (groves) with clearer areas (parterres). The parterres and principal walks were flanked by statues and clipped yew hedges in the most surprising shapes which make Versailles a key centre of the topiarist’s art.
This learned and refined balance between the symmetry of the walks and the fantasy of the groves is applied with more or less rigour in the other great achievements of the gardener: Saint-Cloud for the duc d’Orléans (1665); Sceaux for Colbert (1670-77); Clagny for Mme de Montespan (1674), etc. Apart from Versailles, Le Nôtre laid out for the king the grand terrace of Saint-Germain (1669-72) and the gardens of Trianon (1672-88). Ennobled in 1681, he kept the king’s favour right to the end and – a rare achievement – his friendship. In return, the artist left to him a part of his collections in 1693.
Louis XIV summoned him to Versailles in 1662 when he was working on the gardens of Chantilly for the Grand Condé. Starting from the base of the primitive garden of Louis XIII, Le Nôtre laid out close to the Château two large parterres, the north and south parterres. He remodelled the great east-west axis which he intended to prolong in an endless perspective. While he kept the natural slope of the northern section, the rest was remodelled by human labour.
At Versailles, Le Nôtre refined his gardening concepts: the principal walks cut by secondary walks surrounding the groves; trellises and tree-covered archways formed vast walls of greenery that emphasized the perspectives; side or winding paths led to the groves in order to ensure the surprise of the spectator; original decors and water effects contrasted with the rigorous symmetry of the wooded masses. Using all the resources of water, Le Nôtre created a play on shadow and sunlight by alternating shady places (groves) with clearer areas (parterres). The parterres and principal walks were flanked by statues and clipped yew hedges in the most surprising shapes which make Versailles a key centre of the topiarist’s art.
This learned and refined balance between the symmetry of the walks and the fantasy of the groves is applied with more or less rigour in the other great achievements of the gardener: Saint-Cloud for the duc d’Orléans (1665); Sceaux for Colbert (1670-77); Clagny for Mme de Montespan (1674), etc. Apart from Versailles, Le Nôtre laid out for the king the grand terrace of Saint-Germain (1669-72) and the gardens of Trianon (1672-88). Ennobled in 1681, he kept the king’s favour right to the end and – a rare achievement – his friendship. In return, the artist left to him a part of his collections in 1693.
Louis XIV
THE SUN KING (1638-1715)
The “Grand Century” of Louis XIV was marked by the image of an absolute Monarch and a powerful State. Installed in his royal functions at a very young age, and educated by Cardinal Mazarin, the Sun King built the foundations of absolutism around his own person. In 1682, he moved with his Court to the Château de Versailles, a palace that was a better symbol of his power and his influence in Europe.
Known as “Louis-Dieudonné”, Louis XIV was born in 1638 in Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Crowned king at the age of 5 on the death of his father Louis XIII, the young sovereign received from his mother, Anne of Austria, and from Cardinal Mazarin, his godfather, a complete education. Mazarin was officially in charge of introducing him to politics. His mother ruled as Regent; it was the time of the Fronde (1648-1653), the rebellion of the upper nobility and the people of Paris against the monarch. The young Louis felt humiliated by the arrogance of these nobles and threatened in his capital: he would remember this.
The royal family
In 1660, Louis XIV married his first cousin Maria Theresa of Austria, the Spanish Infanta, in Saint-Jean-de-Luz. Their union reinforced the reconciliation between France and Spain. The King and the Queen had six children. Only one survived, Louis de France. In 1683, the King secretly married Madame de Maintenon who succeeded his first ‘favourites’, Mademoiselle de La Vallière and Madame de Montespan, with whom he had several legitimate descendents.
The royal family
In 1660, Louis XIV married his first cousin Maria Theresa of Austria, the Spanish Infanta, in Saint-Jean-de-Luz. Their union reinforced the reconciliation between France and Spain. The King and the Queen had six children. Only one survived, Louis de France. In 1683, the King secretly married Madame de Maintenon who succeeded his first ‘favourites’, Mademoiselle de La Vallière and Madame de Montespan, with whom he had several legitimate descendents.
1630 The Day of the Dupes
10 NOVEMBER 1630
The Day of the Dupes was a political and diplomatic turning-point in the reign of Louis XIII, and the first major event in the history of France in Versailles. On this day, Marie de Médicis opposed Richelieu but against all odds, Richelieu won over the king's trust.
The day began in Paris in the Luxembourg palace of Marie de Médicis and ended in the small Château de Versailles where Louis XIII was in residence. In September 1630, the queen-mother took advantage of the serious illness that nearly killed her to demand from her son the head of her rival, Cardinal de Richelieu. The queen could no longer bear to witness the great influence of the minister on the king in the administration of the country. She waited for the favourable moment to remind him of his promise.
Backed up by the party opposed to the cardinal, notably to his foreign policy − this was during the Thirty Years War − the queen opened the hostilities on the morning of November 10th. Ready to give in to the appeals of his mother, Louis XIII then found himself embarrassed by the sudden appearance of Richelieu. The queen loudly denounced the minister whom she detested, and demanded that the king, pale and dumb with shock, choose between her or him. Marie, sure of having made a deep impression on her son, believed she had defeated Richelieu, who thought he had to resign. But Louis XIII could not do without him. He knew just how much he owed him until then.
On the same evening, the king summoned the cardinal to Versailles. After a two-hour conversation, the king decided to renew his trust in Richelieu and to sacrifice his mother. She was ordered to leave Paris for Compiègne: Louis XIII was never to see her again. She sent in exile but continued to plot against him. All the opposition to Richelieu was decapitated. The cardinal was made a duke and peer of the realm. His triumph was total. The day marked the true beginning of his ministry which ended with his death in 1642.
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