CHATEAU DE VERSAILLES

The Building of the Palace of Versailles

Location

Versailles is located 12 miles west of Paris.

Versailles

Before the Palace

The original building was a hunting lodge and private retreat for Louis XIII and his family.

Louis XIV expanded the hunting lodge into the splendor it is today.

Plans for Versailles

Louis Le Vau was the architect.

Arch Andre Le Notre was the landscape architect.

Charles Lebrun was the painter and decorator.

The construction of Chateau De Versailles began in 1660. The masterpiece of Louis XIV was not complete until 1688. Changes were made on Chateau de Versailles until 1774. It cost an untold amount of money to build Versailles.

The Visionary of Chateau De Versailles

Construction Type and Style

The construction system of Versailles was cut stone bearing masonry.

The style of Chateau de Versailles was baroque.

Baroque emphasizes dramatic, bold curves and form.

There was no luxury or extravagance spared in the building of Versailles. The corners, ceilings, and walls are covered with lavish carvings, marble, woodwork and paintings. There are 2,143 windows, 1252 fireplaces, and 67 staircases.

Details of Chateau de Versailles

Rooms in Chateau de Versailles

Hall of Mirrors The Congress Room

The Royal Chapel

There are approximately 977 acres of gardens located on the grounds of the Chateau de Versailles.

The Chateau de Versailles Gardens

“When you arrive at Versailles, from the courtyard side you see a wretched, top-heavy building, with a façade seven windows long, surrounded with everything which the imagination could conceive in the way of bad taste. When you see it from the garden side, you see an immense palace whose defects are more than compensated by beauties” - Voltaire

Voltaire’s thoughts on Versailles

Aerial Versailles

Chateau de Versailles covers an area of 6469 acres.

Versailles at Night

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Chateau de Versailles. http://en.chateauversailles.fr/homepage (accessed November 3, 2010).

Great Buildings . www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Chateau_de_Versailles.html (accessed November 3, 2010).

In Louis XIV, by Anthony Levi, 2,20,21,83,128. New York: Carroll & Graf, 2004.

In Versailles a Biography of a Palace, by Tony Spawforth, 1-24. New York : St Martin's Press, 2008.

In Western Civilization , by Jackson J. Spielvogel, 454-456. Belmont: Thomson Wadsworth, 2009.