Château de Versailles
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The Château de Versailles is a château and French historic monument situated in Versailles, in the Yvelines. It served as the principal residence of the French kings Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI. The King, the court and the government resided there permanently from 6 May 1682 until 6 October 1789,
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History
The Château de Versailles stands as the most influential edifice in modern Western architecture — a radiant symbol of France at the very height of its power. Conceived to awe as much as to govern, it distils in a single place the art of French living in all its splendour: paintings by Le Brun, sculptures by Girardon, polychrome marbles and beaten gold leaf compose a total work of decoration in which every room narrates the glory of the Roi-Soleil. What sets Versailles apart from every other European palace is the absolute unity of its vision. Here, architecture, gardens, decorative arts and the staging of power form an inseparable whole. André Le Nôtre tamed nature across kilometres of vistas, ornamental pools and pleached alleys, offering the visitor a sublime geometry that the eye takes in from the central terrace in a breathtaking sweep of perfect symmetry. The Galerie des Glaces remains the crowning marvel of any visit: its 357 mirrors reflect the tall windows overlooking the parterres, conjuring a play of light that shifts with every hour of the day. The Grands Appartements of the King and Queen, the Salon de la Guerre and its counterpart the Salon de la Paix, the bedchamber in which Louis XIV died in 1715 — each room is a living lesson in both history and aesthetics. Beyond the château itself, the estate harbours treasures that are all too often overlooked: the Grand Trianon with its colonnades of rose marble, the neoclassical Petit Trianon so beloved by Marie-Antoinette, and the Hameau de la Reine, a bucolic fantasy in which the queen delighted in playing shepherdess. A full day is barely sufficient to do it justice, and photographers will discover, in the early hours of the morning, a raking light that transforms the façades into a wash of pale gold.
Architecture
The Château de Versailles is a masterpiece of French classicism, a style that Louis XIV intended to impose upon Europe as an alternative to the grandiloquence of Roman Baroque. The garden façade, stretching some 680 metres in length, unfolds across three distinct sections connected by slightly projecting avant-corps, rythmically punctuated by Doric and Ionic columns and pilasters. The ground floor, dressed in rusticated stonework, forms a robust base; the piano nobile opens onto tall arched windows crowned with sculpted trophies, while the attic storey — surmounted by balustrades and stone trophies — conceals the terraced rooflines, a notable departure from the steeply pitched French roofs prevalent at the time. Within, the interior plan is articulated around the Grand Appartement du Roi and the Galerie des Glaces, the true spine of the palace. The gallery — 73 metres long, 10.50 metres wide and 12.30 metres high — sets 17 great glazed bays in alternation with 357 mirrors framed by pilasters of sea-green marble and gilded bronze. The vaulted ceilings, painted by Le Brun, celebrate the victories of the reign between 1661 and 1678. The Chapelle Royale, completed in 1710 by Robert de Cotte after designs by Hardouin-Mansart, bears witness to a remarkably successful synthesis between the Gothic — slender columns, soaring verticality — and the triumphant classicism of its painted ceilings.
Related Figures
Louis XIII — fondateur du premier pavillon de chasse en 1623Louis XIV — maître d'ouvrage et âme du grand Versailles, y résida de 1682 à sa mort en 1715Louis Le Vau — premier architecte royal, auteur de l'enveloppe initiale du châteauJules Hardouin-Mansart — architecte de la Galerie des Glaces, des Grands Communs et des deux grandes ailesAndré Le Nôtre — créateur des jardins à la française et de leur perspective infinieCharles Le Brun — premier peintre du roi, directeur artistique de l'ensemble des décors intérieursMarie-Antoinette — dernière reine à y résider, instigatrice du Petit Trianon et du Hameau de la ReineLouis-Philippe — roi bourgeois qui transforma le palais en musée de l'Histoire de France (1837)
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