Ah, the Louvre—-the home of the Mona Lisa, the Nike of Samothrace, Liberty Leading the People and, until 1682, the French royal family and court.
Until then, however, Versailles wasn’t, well, Versailles. Not in anything but name, that is. The Château de Versailles was a hunting lodge built by Louis XIII in 1623. It was under Louis XIV that it was enlarged into a royal palace—mostly by accident. During the early years of Versailles construction, Versailles was intended to be a private residence, and referred to as “the king’s house.” Accordingly, the cost came from the king’s private purse and revenue from New France (Canada), which was technically the king’s private property. However, as finance minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert came of the scene: the cost was too much, and Colbert decided that Versailles should become the showcase of France.
Everything that goes into the palace comes out of France and France alone—construction, decoration, and everything in between—-all of the mirrors in the Hall of Mirrors, for example, came from France. That created more than a little bit of a problem, however. The Republic of Venice held the capital on mirror-making in Europe in the 17th century and when Colbert began enticing Venetian mirror-makers to France, the Republic of Venice quickly remedied the almost-spilled state secrets by having the mirror-makers assassinated.
Versailles took roughly fifty years to complete and went through several different architects and designers: architects Louis Le Vau and Jules Hardouin-Mansart, landscaper André de Nôtre, and decorator Charles Le Brun.
The entire palace was center around the Cour de Marbre, which was where the Grands Appartements of the king and queen were arranged around. Each suite consisted of seven rooms, but they were not in the least personal rooms and used for special court ceremonies and even as council chambers for the very elite of French royal government.
However, the king and queen (or mistress) did have a private retreat; the Grand Trianon which was a “tiny” château situated on the land of Versailles but away from the court and its strict etiquette. It also served as special guest quarters for people like the Grand Duke Peter of Russia.
Versailles boasts other entertainment for its guests. The Hall of Mirrors is one of the many salons of Versailles and its main feature is the seventeen mirror-clad arches that reflect the windows; each arch has twenty-one mirrors that are surrounded by a complementary three-hundred and fifty-seven. The Hall of Mirrors face the gardens—the Gardens of Versailles, which cover around 800 hectares of land and include the Versailles Orangerie as well as fifty fountains, masterful collaborations between Le Brun and de Nôtre.
The Palace of Versailles was the pinnacle of the Baroque and Rococo movements—-the synthesis of building, sculpture, painting, decoration, and landscape into a extraordinary piece of art all on its own. The bigger, the better, the Baroque. The sheer opulence of Versailles has kept it intact through the ages; not only as something to admire, but as something to conquer. In 1871 after the Franco-Prussian War, the Emperor of Germany was crowned in the Hall of Mirrors—-just to show how Germany had utterly defeated France. And so the king’s house still stands.
First of all I want to say that every time I read your passion blog even from last semester, I am amazed at how much you know about this stuff. And I also want to say that your blog is very aesthetically pleasing, and I love to see all the pictures. This building is beautiful and it is interesting to read about all of the background history that went on inside. It’s strange to see how differently these people lived back then. I am taking a German contemporary culture class and we just finished studying World War I so I was learning about the Treaty of Versailles. I do not know where the treaty took place, meaning in which building, however, it is cool to see real pictures of Versailles and get visuals. It would be really cool if it took place in this building. I have never been to France but the more I learn about it and particularly this blog entry make me want to visit. Great post!
Haha, thank you very much! I’ve definitely spent way too much time picking out blog themes. Oh, yeah, we’ll get into this later but compared to contemporary palaces (like the ones in Austria that Marie-Antoinette was used to) Versailles was actually kind of a pigsty in terms of things like sanitation. Also, the Treaty of Versailles took place in the Hall of Mirrors! Believe me, I definitely want to visit too!
The architecture and overall design clearly exude affluence. Too bad Venice killed off those mirror-makers, though.
You are clearly super knowledgeable about your topic, which is very interesting. I had previously known very, very little about the French courts (only what little I can remember from AP Euro) so it was very cool to learn from you about something you’re passionate about. I was able to visit Versailles over winter break, and I don’t think I really understood the magnitude of it until after I’d seen it with my own eyes. It’s one thing to know a place is so opulent and grandiose, but it’s definitely another to see for yourself.
Your blog is really nicely organized, and I appreciate all of the pictures you’ve included; they’re super helpful to be able to reference some of the things you’re writing about.
Thank you! I would love to go visit Versailles myself. Pictures are always the best part, especially since a lot of the stuff for Versailles is really high quality.
I have loved reading your posts and look forward to your future entries. My only piece of advice is to watch your picture placement within text. In this post, it makes it difficult to read certain portions. Another idea might be to use the pictures as breaks between paragraphs to avoid word overload. Otherwise, fantastic blog.
Thank you! I will be sure to do that. My other posts should hopefully be less picture heavy.
Ahhh I loved visiting Versailles, it was such a great experience. We had a fantastic tour guide that told us a lot of this information but you went more in depth than he could which I really appreciate; I didn’t even know the orangerie was a thing though, where the hell was it?!? I explored the gardens as much as I could but I guess it was just too massive to find it haha.
Anyway, you’ve got really good information in your blogs, keep up the good work. I would just suggest working on formatting a little better, specifically where you place the pictures because it looks a little messy. Other than that I don’t have much to complain about! You lit girl you lit.
Thanks!! Yep, the gardens were so massive Louis XIV personally wrote a tour guide for them. And they’re actually pretty unchanged since the 1700s! All the species you see there were the same plants that were ordered planted.
I’m really curious – how do you know so much about French history? I mean, we were in the same Euro class, but I definitely didn’t retain the same amount of information as you did. It’s pretty fascinating to get a closer look.
haha, honestly just the Versailles official website is where I got a lot of this info.