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. Additionally, this project, which took over seven years to achieve,has required several hundred kilograms of silver and gold to complete. Hotel Royal Versailles 3* Inn De La Place Royale 3* Deefly Lakeview 4 stars, Hangzhou - lakeview.hangzhouhotel.org: By Marriott Buckhead 3 stars, Atlanta - residence-inn-atlanta-buckhead.hotels-in-atlanta.com: Hotel Pierre Du Calvet 4 stars Wi-Fi. The decoration of the walls and ceiling depicts scenes from the life of the goddess Diana. In 1687 Hardouin-Mansart began the Grand Trianon, or Trianon de Marbre (Marble Trianon), replacing Le Vau's 1668 Trianon de Porcelaine in the northern section of the park. Emperor Napoleon III used the Palace on occasion as a stage for grand ceremonies. He died there on September 1, 1715. [a][4][6][7], Louis XIV first visited the château on a hunting trip in 1651 at the age of twelve, but returned only occasionally until his marriage to Maria Theresa of Spain in 1660 and the death of Cardinal Mazarin in 1661, after which he suddenly acquired a passion for the site. 336–339; Maral 2010, pp. In 1685, pressure on water supplies led Louis XIV to commission another aqueduct, the Canal de l'Eure, to transport water from the River Eure, 52 miles to the southwest. Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps. Each bosquet had its own theme and fountains, statuary, grottoes, and other decoration. The virtual exhibition that puts Versailles in the picture! Virtually Versailles. It is a significant historical and cultural treasure. A simple hunting lodging and later a small château with a moat occupied the site until 1661, when the first work expanding the château into a palace was carried out for Louis XIV. [99][100][101] Following the November 2015 Paris attacks, President François Hollande gave a speech before a rare joint session of parliament at the Palace of Versailles. Additionally, it is known to include Thalia (the muse of Comedy), Melpomene, Calliope, and Apollo (Louis XIV's emblem)[55] and the twelve months of the year. It concluded in the lighter and more graceful neoclassical Louis XVI style of the Petit Trianon, completed by Ange-Jacques Gabriel in 1768. It was surrounded by flowerbeds and decorated entirely with blue and white porcelain, in imitation of the Chinese style. Portraits of Louis XV and his Queen, Marie Leszczinska, by the Flemish artist Carle Van Loo decorate the room today. - Note that Versailles is outside zone 3, but a single RER train ticket to Versailles will cost you only €3.25 - To get to the palace of Versailles, make sure to buy a "Paris - Versailles Rive Gauche" ticket (zones 1-4) (T+ ticket is not valid for this journey) SNCF Trains - Arrive at Versailles … [26] 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. It then became grander and more monumental, with the addition of the colonnades and flat roofs of the new royal apartments in the French classical or Louis XIV style, as designed by Louis Le Vau and later Jules Hardouin-Mansart. Louis XV commissioned a bathroom to be built when he was thirteen years old – he would later build bathrooms supplied with plumbed-in hot and cold water. Those on display today were made in 1770 for the marriage of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, based on the moldings of earlier silver versions made by LeBrun that had been melted down. In 1679, Mme de Maintenon stated that the cost of providing light and food for twelve people for one day amounted to slightly more than 14 livres. 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 mar… The celebration of his marriage to the Archduchess of Austria Marie-Antoinette in 1770 at the Royal Opera House was one of the greatest events to take place in Versailles in the late 18th century. Conditions to access the estate of Versailles. [58], The Salon of Mercury was the original State Bedchamber when Louis XIV officially moved the court and government to the Palace in 1682. The sculptor Augustin Pajou added statuary and reliefs to complete the decoration. … [8] He decided to rebuild, embellish and enlarge the château and to transform it into a setting for both rest and for elaborate entertainments on a grand scale. One of the most lavish was the banquet that he hosted for Queen Victoria in the Royal Opera of Versailles on August 25, 1855. This presented the daunting problem to Louis XIV's engineers of how to transport water uphill over such a distance. [102] This was the third time since 1848 that a French president addressed a joint session of the French Parliament at Versailles. Some of the early groves were altered beyond recognition by later monarchs, but the most famous bosquets, Le Nôtre's Salle de Bal (literally, "ballroom"), also known as the Bosquet des Rocailles (c. 1685), and Hardouin-Mansart's Bosquet de la Colonnade, have both been restored to the way they were under Louis XIV. [59], Ceiling in the Salon of Apollo, depicting the Sun Chariot of Apollo, Bust of Louis XIV by Bernini in Salon of Diana. The reign of Louis XVI 1774 - 1793. All fleurs-de-lys and royal emblems on the buildings were chambered or chiseled off. [88] The suite was dismantled and covered over after the relationship ended in 1684. The show at the Opéra Royal combines fashion show, dance and singing in a staging by Jean-Louis Barrault. It was owned by the Gondi family and the priory of Saint Julian. France's Fifth Republic expenditures alone, directed to restoration and maintenance at Versailles, may have surpassed those of the Sun King. 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. These buildings had nearly-flat roofs covered with lead. It is a nice square, which is surrounded by important and beautiful buildings. In 1687, he replaced it with the Grand Trianon, a larger and more classical pavilion designed by Mansart, with a terrace and walls faced with different colored slabs of marble. We are strategically located on Sherbrooke Street East, very close to highways 20, 40 and 25 and a few steps from the Radisson metro station. [54] The staircase was lit from above with a skylight – a fairly advanced quality for seventeenth century architecture and is thought to have played a symbolic role in the connection with the scenes of the kings heroism depicted by Le Brun. A “green lung” just 16 kilometres from Paris, the estate managed by the Public Institution of the Palace of Versailles draws a great many nature lovers and sports enthusiasts every day. [3], The site of the Palace was first occupied by a small village and church, surrounded by forests filled with abundant game. 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. He also added two grottos in the Italian style and an immense orangerie to house fruit trees, as well as a zoo with a central pavilion for exotic animals. Like other royal chapels, it had two levels: the King and family worshipped in the Royal Gallery on the upper level, while ordinary courtiers stood on the ground level. The cheapest way to get from Versailles Chantiers to Place des Vosges costs only 2€, and the quickest way takes just 28 mins. [94], The Petit Trianon was created between 1763 and 1768 by Ange-Jacques Gabriel for Louis XV. [98] 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). The construction in 1668–1671 of Le Vau's enveloppe around the outside of Louis XIII's red brick and white stone château added state apartments for the king and the queen. Discover the latest acquisitions by the Palace of Versailles. Four bedroom, three bath: Charming and elegant property with four large windows overlooking Place des Vosges. The Grand Gallery is a highly decorated reception room, dedicated to the celebration of the political and military successes of Louis XIV, and used for important ceremonies, celebrations and receptions. This was a picturesque collection of buildings modeled after a rural French hamlet, where the Queen and her courtiers could play at being peasants. A virtual tour like no other. 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. 215–229. Heads of state are regaled in the Hall of Mirrors; the bicameral French Parliament—consisting of the Senate (Sénat) and the National Assembly (Assemblée nationale)—meet in joint session (a congress of the French Parliament) in Versailles[96] to revise or otherwise amend the French Constitution, a tradition that came into effect with the promulgation of the 1875 Constitution. The conservation and restoration was interrupted by two world wars, but has continued until the present day. It is decorated with box trees and flowers in arabesque patterns. Hadouin-Mansart added a second level and two large new wings on either side of the original Cour Royale (Royal Courtyard). His main contributions were the construction of the Salon of Hercules, which connected the main building of the Palace with the north wing and the chapel (1724–36); and the royal opera theater, designed by Ange-Jacques Gabriel, and built between 1769 and 1770. 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. An estimate in 2000 placed the amount spent during the Ancien Régime as US$2 billion,[112] this figure being, in all probability, an under-evaluation. The King kept a silver throne, usually located in the Salon of Apollo, which was brought to the Hall of Mirrors for formal ceremonies, such as the welcome of foreign ambassadors, including a delegation from the King of Siam in 1686. He instructed Mansart to begin the construction of the Royal Chapel of Versailles, which towered over the rest of the palace. [81] At full capacity, over one million gallons of water per day could be pumped into the Marly reservoirs, but ironically by the 1690s the Château de Marly had become the main recipient, since Louis XIV built an enormous water cascade to rival the waterworks at Versailles.[82]. Le Brun supervised the work of a large group of sculptors and painters, called the Petite Academie, who crafted and painted the ornate walls and ceilings. As of 4 April 2008, silver has been trading in New York at US$17.83 an ounce. [5], After this event, Louis XIII decided to make his hunting lodge at Versailles into a château. [92], 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. II. [15][16][17], Le Brun also supervised the design and installation of countless statues in the gardens. In other words, construction started in the reign of Henri IV and finished early in the reign of Louis XIII.