The Palace of Versailles, located in the city of Versailles, near Paris, is a Historic Monument listed as a World Heritage of Humanity since 1979. It was the residence of the Kings of France until the French Revolution and bears witness to the classical art of the 17th and 18th centuries.
Under the reign of Louis XIV, the modest hunting lodge of his father Louis XIII, you underwent enormous work from 1661. Louis XIV, as architect of this magnificent architectural masterpiece of the royal dream, is inspired by the château de Vaux-le-Vicomte by Nicolas Fouquet and will call upon the three brilliant builders of the Château Vaux-le-Vicomte, who had been at the service of the King for years: Charles le Brun, André Le Nôtre and Louis de Vau. He will be devoted a modest initial sum of one and a half million pounds to make Versailles, “the castle of jealousy”, a sumptuous Palace.
During the French Revolution, on October 5, 1789, the people of Paris will march to Versailles, invade the castle and brought the royal family back to Paris. Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI died guillotined in 1793 at the Place de la Revolution (place de la Concorde). Louis XVI will be the last monarch king to have lived in Versailles.
Napoleon Bonaparte, after his marriage with Marie Louise Leopoldine, wished to settle in Versailles, but he will preferred the discretion of the Trianon, as if he had feared awakening the ghost of Louis XVI.
The Palace of Versailles with its 700 rooms, gardens and outbuildings (Museum of the History of France, the large and small Trianon, the Orangerie, the Ice Gallery, etc.), is one of the most visited sites in France. If you are visiting Paris, come and discover the symbol of the royal power of Louis XIV, where he will have coexisted with his court, his grandiose feasts where Molière will have played many plays.