Palace of Versailles and Grand Trianons Pierre de Nolhac 1907 Illustrated

Description: Versailles and the TrianonsPierre de NolhacPublished by Dodd, Mead and Company, New York, 1907 The Grand Trianon (French pronunciation: [ɡʁɑ̃ tʁijanɔ̃]) is a French Baroque style château situated in the northwestern part of the Domain of Versailles in Versailles, France. It was built at the request of Louis XIV as a retreat for himself and his maîtresse-en-titre of the time, the Marquise de Montespan, and as a place where he and invited guests could take light meals (collations) away from the strict etiquette of the royal court. The Grand Trianon is set within its own park, which includes the Petit Trianon (a smaller château built in the 1760s, during the reign of Louis XV). Trianon de porcelaineMain article: Trianon de PorcelaineBetween 1663 and 1665, Louis XIV purchased the hamlet of Trianon, on the outskirts of Versailles. In 1670, he commissioned the architect Louis Le Vau to design a porcelain pavilion (Trianon de porcelaine) to be built there. The façade was made of white and blue Delft-style porcelain (ceramic) tiles from the French manufactures of Rouen, Lisieux, Nevers and Saint-Cloud. Construction began in 1670 and was finished two years later. Since it was made of porcelain, the building suffered from deterioration. Louis XIV ordered its demolition in 1686 and replaced it with a larger building. Trianon de marbreUnder Louis XIVBy 1686, the fragile porcelain tiles of the Trianon de porcelaine had deteriorated to such a point that Louis XIV ordered the demolition of the pavilion and its replacement with one made of stronger material. Commission of the work was entrusted to the architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart. Hardouin-Mansart's new structure was twice the size of the porcelain pavilion, and the material used was red marble from Languedoc.[1] Begun in June 1687, the new construction (as we see it today) was finished in January 1688. It was inaugurated by Louis XIV and his secret wife, the Marquise de Maintenon, during the summer of 1688. Hardouin-Mansart's early plans for the building were substantially altered during construction, with the original intention of keeping the core of the Trianon de porcelaine intact vetoed in favor of an open-air peristyle with a screen of red marble columns facing onto the garden. At least three other structures were built at the center of the new building and then torn down before the peristyle was settled on, during the frantic building activity of the summer of 1687. The sloping Mansard roof of the original design, meant to harmonize with the roof of the Trianon de porcelaine, was vetoed by the king, who felt it looked too "heavy" on the structure.[2] The long interior gallery which forks west from the main wing was built on the spot of a favorite outdoor promenade that Louis XIV enjoyed at the old Trianon de porcelaine. The interior design scheme departed significantly from what Louis XIV and his architects had established at the Palace of Versailles. Louis reputedly ordered the architects to "Paint everything white. No gilt or color for the walls of Trianon."[3] This was a departure from the variegated marbles, rich colors, and gilding which defined the interiors at Versailles. Instead of the heavy ornamentation on display in the palace, the walls of the Trianon were covered in delicately carved wood boiseries, with plaster friezes, pilasters, and capitals of noticeably more refined, delicate appearance.[4] The Trianon was home to Louis XIV's extended family, housing his son and heir Louis, Grand Dauphin from 1703 to 1711. The domain was also a favourite retreat of the Duchess of Burgundy, the wife of his grandson Louis de France, the parents of Louis XV.[citation needed] In the later years of Louis XIV's reign, the Trianon was the residence of the King's sister-in-law Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate, Dowager Duchess of Orléans and known at court as Madame. Her son, Philippe d'Orléans, future son-in-law of Louis XIV and Regent of France, lived there with his mother. Louis XIV even ordered the construction of a larger wing for the Trianon, which was begun in 1708 by Hardouin-Mansart; this wing, called Trianon-sous-Bois, housed the Orléans family, including Louis XIV's legitimised daughter Françoise-Marie de Bourbon. The king's youngest grandson, Charles de France, and his wife Marie Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans also resided there. The Orléans family, who had apartments at the Palace of Versailles, were later replaced by Françoise-Marie's sister; the Duchess of Bourbon, Madame la Duchesse, lived at the Trianon and later built the Palais Bourbon in Paris, the design of which copied the Trianon. André-Charles Boulle, commode Mazarine (Mazarine cabinet), 1708, made for the Grand TrianonIn 1708, the prototypes for the commodes Mazarine, then called bureaux, were delivered to the Trianon by André-Charles Boulle. The first Duke of Antin, Louis Antoine de Pardaillan de Gondrin, director of the Bâtiments du Roi, wrote to Louis XIV: "I was at the Trianon inspecting the second writing desk by Boulle; it is as beautiful as the other and suits the room perfectly."[5] In 1717, Peter the Great of Russia, who was studying the palace and gardens of Versailles, resided at the Trianon; the Peterhof Palace was inspired by Versailles. Louis XV and after The Grand Trianon's interiorLouis XV did not bring any changes to the Grand Trianon. In 1740 and 1743, his father-in-law, Stanisław Leszczyński, former king of Poland, stayed there during his visits to Versailles. In 1741, Louis XV gifted the Grand Trianon to his wife Marie Leszczyńska.[6] Later, it was during a stay at Trianon that Louis XV fell ill before being transported to the Palace of Versailles, where he died on 10 May 1774. No more than his predecessor had, Louis XVI brought no structural modifications to the Grand Trianon. His wife, Queen Marie Antoinette, who preferred the Petit Trianon, gave a few theatrical representations in the galerie des Cotelle, a gallery with paintings by Jean l'Aîné Cotelle representing the bosquets of Versailles and Trianon.[7] During the French Revolution of 1789, the Grand Trianon was left to neglect. At the time of the First French Empire, Napoleon made it one of his residences, and he furnished it in the Empire Style. Napoleon lived at Trianon with his second wife, Marie Louise of Austria. The next royals to live at the Grand Trianon were the King and Queen of the French – Louis Philippe I and his Italian wife Maria Amalia of the Two Sicilies. He was a descendant of the Regent Philippe d'Orléans, and she was a niece of Marie Antoinette. In October 1837, Marie d'Orléans (daughter of Louis Philippe I) married Alexander of Württemberg at the Grand Trianon. Louis Philippe made sanitary alterations to the Grand Trianon, moving the kitchens and offices to the basement and adding plumbing. Despite these changes "the general character of the palace was unchanged, and even the original arrangement of the rooms was preserved," according to Pierre de Nolhac.[8] In 1873, Marshal François Achille Bazaine was imprisoned for treason at the Grand Trianon and his trial took place in the peristyle.[9] In 1920, the Grand Trianon hosted the negotiations and signing of the Treaty of Trianon, which left Hungary with less than one-third of its pre-World War I land size. To Hungarians, the word "Trianon" remains to this day the symbol of one of their worst national disasters. In 1963, Charles de Gaulle ordered a renovation of the building. A popular site today for tourists visiting Versailles, it is also one of the French Republic's presidential residences used to host foreign officials. List of residents1690–1Palace of Versailles (/vɛərˈsaɪ, vɜːrˈsaɪ/ vair-SY, vur-SY;[1] French: château de Versailles [ʃɑto d(ə) vɛʁsɑj] ⓘ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about 19 kilometers (12 mi) west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the government of France and since 1995 has been managed, under the direction of the French Ministry of Culture, by the Public Establishment of the Palace, Museum and National Estate of Versailles.[2] About 15,000,000 people visit the palace, park, or gardens of Versailles every year, making it one of the most popular tourist attractions in the world.[3] Louis XIII built a simple hunting lodge on the site of the Palace of Versailles in 1623. With his death came Louis XIV who expanded the château into the beginnings of a palace that went through several changes and phases from 1661 to 1715. It was a favorite residence for both kings, and in 1682, Louis XIV moved the seat of his court and government to Versailles, making the palace the de facto capital of France. This state of affairs was continued by Kings Louis XV and Louis XVI, who primarily made interior alterations to the palace, but in 1789 the royal family and capital of France returned to Paris. For the rest of the French Revolution, the Palace of Versailles was largely abandoned and emptied of its contents, and the population of the surrounding city plummeted. Napoleon, following his coronation as Emperor, used the Grand Trianon as a summer residence from 1810 to 1814, but did not use the main palace. Following the Bourbon Restoration, when the king was returned to the throne, he resided in Paris and it was not until the 1830s that meaningful repairs were made to the palace. A museum of French history was installed within it, replacing the courtiers apartments of the southern wing. The palace and park were designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1979 for its importance as the center of power, art, and science in France during the 17th and 18th centuries.[4] The French Ministry of Culture has placed the palace, its gardens, and some of its subsidiary structures on its list of culturally significant monuments. HistoryMain article: History of the Palace of VersaillesAn engraving of Louis XIII's château as it appeared in 1652Versailles around 1652, engraving by Jacques Gomboust [fr]In 1623,[5][6] Louis XIII, king of France, built a hunting lodge on a hill in a favorite hunting ground, 19 kilometers (12 mi) west of Paris,[7] and 16 kilometers (10 mi) from his primary residence, the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye.[8] The site, near a village named Versailles,[a] was a wooded wetland that Louis XIII's court scorned as being generally unworthy of a king;[12] one of his courtiers, François de Bassompierre, wrote that the lodge "would not inspire vanity in even the simplest gentleman".[6][13] From 1631 to 1634, architect Philibert Le Roy replaced the lodge with a château for Louis XIII,[14][15] who forbade his queen, Anne of Austria, from staying there overnight,[16][17] even when an outbreak of smallpox at Saint-Germain-en-Laye in 1641 forced Louis XIII to relocate to Versailles with his three-year-old heir, the future Louis XIV.[16][18] When Louis XIII died in 1643, Anne became Louis XIV's regent,[19] and Louis XIII's château was abandoned for the next decade. She moved the court back to Paris,[20] where Anne and her chief minister, Cardinal Mazarin, continued Louis XIII's unpopular monetary practices. This led to the Fronde, a series of revolts against royal authority from 1648 to 1653 that masked a struggle between Mazarin and the princes of the blood, Louis XIV's extended family, for influence over him.[21] In the aftermath of the Fronde, Louis XIV became determined to rule alone.[22][23] Following Mazarin's death in 1661,[24] Louis XIV reformed his government to exclude his mother and the princes of the blood,[23] moved the court back to Saint-Germain-en-Laye,[25] and ordered the expansion of his father's château at Versailles into a palace.[16][26] Louis XIV had hunted at Versailles in the 1650s,[15][18] but did not take any special interest in Versailles until 1661.[27] On 17 August 1661,[28] Louis XIV was a guest at a sumptuous festival hosted by Nicolas Fouquet, the Superintendent of Finances, at his palatial residence, the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte.[24][29] Louis XIV was impressed by the château and its gardens,[29][30] which were the work of Louis Le Vau, the court architect since 1654, André Le Nôtre, the royal gardener since 1657, and Charles Le Brun,[15] a painter in royal service since 1647.[31] Vaux-le-Vicomte's scale and opulence led him to imprison Fouquet that September, as he had also built an island fortress and a private army.[29][32] But Louis XIV was also inspired by Vaux-le-Vicomte,[33] and he recruited its authors for his own projects.[34][35] Louis XIV replaced Fouquet with Jean-Baptiste Colbert,[23][30] a protégé of Mazarin and enemy of Fouquet,[36] and charged him with managing the corps of artisans in royal employment.[37][38] Colbert acted as the intermediary between them and Louis XIV,[39] who personally directed and inspected the planning and construction of Versailles.[40][41][42] ConstructionA painting of the Palace and Versailles and its gardens as it appeared in 1668Versailles in 1668, painted by Pierre PatelA painting of the garden façade built by Louis Le Vau from 1668 to 1670Le Vau's garden façade around 1675Work at Versailles was at first concentrated on gardens,[43][44] and through the 1660s, Le Vau only added two detached service wings and a forecourt to the château.[45][46] But in 1668–69,[47][48] as a response to the growth of the gardens,[49] and victory over Spain in the War of Devolution,[47][48] Louis XIV decided to turn Versailles into a full-scale royal residence.[45][50] He vacillated between replacing or incorporating his father's château, but settled on the latter by the end of the decade,[47][48][51] and from 1668 to 1671,[52] Louis XIII's château was encased on three sides in a feature dubbed the enveloppe.[48][53] This gave the château a new, Italianate façade overlooking the gardens, but preserved the courtyard façade,[54][55] resulting in a mix of styles and materials that dismayed Louis XIV[55] and that Colbert described as a "patchwork".[56] Attempts to homogenize the two façades failed, and in 1670 Le Vau died,[57] leaving the post of First Architect to the King vacant for the next seven years.[58] Le Vau was succeeded at Versailles by his assistant, architect François d'Orbay.[59] Work at the palace during the 1670s focused on its interiors, as the palace was then nearing completion,[54][60] though d'Orbay expanded Le Vau's service wings and connected them to the château,[54] and built a pair of pavilions for government employees in the forecourt.[18][61] In 1670, d'Orbay was tasked by Louis XIV with designing a city, also called Versailles,[9] to house and service Louis XIV's growing government and court.[57][62] The granting of land to courtiers for the construction of townhouses that resembled the palace began in 1671.[57][63] The next year, the Franco-Dutch War began and funding for Versailles was cut until 1674,[64] when Louis XIV had work begun on the Ambassadors' Staircase [fr], a grand staircase for the reception of guests, and demolished the last of the village of Versailles.[65] Versailles around 1682, engraving by Adam PerelleFollowing the end of the Franco-Dutch War with French victory in 1678, Louis XIV appointed as First Architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart,[25][66] an experienced architect in Louis XIV's confidence,[67] who would benefit from a restored budget and large workforce of former soldiers.[64][68] Mansart began his tenure with the addition from 1678 to 1681 of the Hall of Mirrors,[69] a renovation of the courtyard façade of Louis XIII's château,[70] and the expansion of d'Orbay's pavilions to create the Ministers' Wings in 1678–79.[71] Adjacent to the palace, Hardouin-Mansart built a pair of stables called the Grande and Petite Écuries from 1679 to 1682[72][73] and the Grand Commun [fr], which housed the palace's servants and general kitchens, from 1682 to 1684.[74] Hardouin-Mansart also added two entirely new wings in Le Vau's Italianate style to house the court,[75] first at the south end of the palace from 1679 to 1681[76] and then at its north end from 1685 to 1689.[18] War and the resulting diminished funding slowed construction at Versailles for the rest of the 17th century.[64] The Nine Years' War, which began in 1688, stopped work altogether until 1698.[68] Three years later, however, the even more expensive War of the Spanish Succession began and,[77] combined with poor harvests in 1693–94 and 1709–10,[78][79] plunged France into crisis.[79][80] Louis XIV thus slashed funding and canceled some of the work Hardouin-Mansart had planned in the 1680s, such as the remodeling of the courtyard façade in the Italianate style. Louis XIV and Hardouin-Mansart focused on a permanent palace chapel,[64][81] the construction of which lasted from 1699 to 1710.[54][82] A masked ball in the Hall of Mirrors (1745) by Charles-Nicolas CochinLouis XIV's successors, Louis XV and Louis XVI, largely left Versailles as they inherited it and focused on the palace's interiors. Louis XV's modifications began in the 1730s, with the completion of the Salon d'Hercule, a ballroom in the north wing, and the expansion of the king's private apartment,[83][84] which required the demolition of the Ambassadors' Staircase.[40] In 1748, Louis XV began construction of a palace theater, the Royal Opera of Versailles at the northernmost end of the palace,[85][86] but completion was delayed until 1770;[86][87] construction was interrupted in the 1740s by the War of the Austrian Succession and then again in 1756 with the start of the Seven Years' War.[85][87] These wars emptied the royal treasury and thereafter construction was mostly funded by Madame du Barry, Louis XV's favorite mistress. In 1771, Louis XV had the northern Ministers' Wing rebuilt in Neoclassical style by Ange-Jacques Gabriel, his court architect, as it was in the process of falling down. That work was also stopped by financial constraints, and it remained incomplete when Louis XV died in 1774. In 1784, Louis XVI briefly moved the royal family to the Château de Saint-Cloud ahead of more renovations to the Palace of Versailles, but construction could not begin because of financial difficulty and political crisis.[88] In 1789, the French Revolution swept the royal family and government out of Versailles forever.[54][89] Role in politics and culture Reception of the Grand Condé at Versailles, painted by Jean-Léon GérômeThe Palace of Versailles was key to Louis XIV's politics, as an expression and concentration of French art and culture, and for the centralization of royal power.[90][91] Louis XIV first used Versailles to promote himself with a series of nighttime festivals in its gardens in 1664, 1668, and 1674,[27] the events of which were disseminated throughout Europe by print and engravings.[92][93] As early as 1669,[47] but especially from 1678,[94] Louis XIV sought to make Versailles his seat of government, and he expanded the palace so as to fit the court within it.[95][96][97] The moving of the court to Versailles did not come until 1682,[97] however, and not officially, as opinion on Versailles was mixed among the nobility of France.[13][98] By 1687, however, it was evident to all that Versailles was the de facto capital of France,[71][99] and Louis XIV succeeded in attracting the nobility to Versailles to pursue prestige and royal patronage within a strict court etiquette,[91][96][100][b] thus eroding their traditional provincial power bases.[96][97][102] It was at the Palace of Versailles that Louis XIV received the Doge of Genoa, Francesco Maria Imperiale Lercari in 1685,[103] an embassy from the Ayutthaya Kingdom in 1686,[104] and an embassy from Safavid Iran in 1715.[105] Louis XIV died at Versailles on 1 September 1715 and was succeeded by his five-year-old great-grandson, Louis XV,[78][106] then the duke of Anjou,[107] who was moved to the Château de Vincennes and then to Paris by Louis XV's regent, Philippe II, Duke of Orléans.[106] Versailles was neglected until 1722,[18] when Philippe II removed the court to Versailles to escape the unpopularity of his regency,[108][109] and when Louis XV began his majority.[110] The 1715 move, however, broke the cultural power of Versailles,[111] and during the reign of Louis XVI, courtiers spent their leisure in Paris, not Versailles.[18] The 7-year-old Mozart during his stay at the palaceDuring Christmas 1763, Mozart and his family visited Versailles and dined with the King. The 7-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart played several works during his stay and later dedicated his first two harpsichord sonatas, published in 1764 in Paris, to Madame Victoria, daughter of Louis XV.[112] In 1783, the palace was the site of the signing of the last two of the three treaties of the Peace of Paris (1783), which ended the American Revolutionary War. On 3 September, British and American delegates, led by Benjamin Franklin, signed the Treaty of Paris at the Hôtel d'York (now 56 Rue Jacob) in Paris, granting the United States independence. On 4 September, Spain and France signed separate treaties with Britain at the Palace of Versailles, formally ending the war.[113] The King and Queen learned of the Storming of the Bastille in Paris on 14 July 1789, while they were at the palace, and remained isolated there as the Revolution in Paris spread. The growing anger in Paris led to the Women's March on Versailles on 5 October 1789. A crowd of several thousand men and women, protesting the high price and scarcity of bread, marched from the markets of Paris to Versailles. They took weapons from the city armory, besieged the palace, and compelled the King and royal family and the members of the National Constituent Assembly to return with them to Paris the following day.[114] As soon as the royal family departed, the palace was closed. In 1792, the National Convention, the new revolutionary government, ordered the transfer of all the paintings and sculptures from the palace to the Louvre. In 1793, the Convention declared the abolition of the monarchy and ordered all of the royal property in the palace to be sold at auction. The auction took place between 25 August 1793 and 11 August 1794. The furnishings and art of the palace, including the furniture, mirrors, baths, and kitchen equipment, were sold in seventeen thousand lots. All fleurs-de-lys and royal emblems on the buildings were chambered or chiseled off. The empty buildings were turned into a storehouse for furnishings, art and libraries confiscated from the nobility. The empty grand apartments were opened for tours beginning in 1793, and a small museum of French paintings and art school was opened in some of the empty rooms.[115] By virtue of an order issued by the Versailles district directorate in August 1794, the Royal Gate was destroyed, the Cour Royale was cleared and the Cour de Marbre lost its precious floor.[116][117] 19th century – history museum and government venue The Lords' Antechamber at Grand Trianon Banquet for Queen Victoria hosted by Napoleon III in the Royal Opera of Versailles, August 1855 by Eugene Lami Proclamation of the German Empire, 18 January 1871, 1877 by Anton von WernerWhen Napoleon became Emperor of the French in 1804, he considered making Versailles his residence but abandoned the idea because of the cost of the renovation. Prior to his marriage with Marie-Louise in 1810, he had the Grand Trianon restored and refurnished as a springtime residence for himself and his family, in the style of furnishing that it is seen today.[118] In 1815, with the final downfall of Napoleon, Louis XVIII, the younger brother of Louis XVI, became king, and considered returning the royal residence to Versailles, where he had been born. He ordered the restoration of the royal apartments, but the task and cost was too great. Louis XVIII had the far end of the south wing of the Cour Royale demolished and rebuilt (1814–1824) to match the Gabriel wing of 1780 opposite, which gave greater uniformity of appearance to the front entrance.[119] Neither he nor his successor Charles X lived at Versailles.[118] The French Revolution of 1830 brought a new monarch, Louis-Philippe to power, and a new ambition for Versailles. He did not reside at Versailles but began the creation of the Museum of the History of France, dedicated to "all the glories of France", which had been used to house some members of the royal family. The museum was begun in 1833 and inaugurated on 30 June 1837. 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.[120] 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. Emperor Napoleon III used the palace on occasion as a stage for grand ceremonies. One of the most lavish was the banquet that he hosted for Queen Victoria in the Royal Opera of Versailles on 25 August 1855.[121] During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, the palace was occupied by the general staff of the victorious German Army. Parts of the château, including the Hall of Mirrors, were turned into a military hospital. The creation of the German Empire, combining Prussia and the surrounding German states under William I, was formally proclaimed in the Hall of Mirrors on 18 January 1871. The Germans remained in the palace until the signing of the armistice in March 1871. 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. The National Assembly held its meetings in the Opera House.[122] The uprising of the Paris Commune in March 1871, prevented the French government, under Adolphe Thiers, from returning immediately to Paris. The military operation which suppressed the Commune at the end of May was directed from Versailles, and the prisoners of the Commune were marched there and put on trial in military courts. In 1875 a second parliamentary body, the French Senate, was created and held its meetings for the election of a President of the Republic in a new hall created in 1876 in the south wing of the palace. The French Senate and National Assembly continue to meet in the palace in joint session on special occasions, such as the amendment of the Constitution of France.[123] 20th century The Signing of Peace in the Hall of Mirrors, Versailles, 28 June 1919 by William OrpenThe end of the 19th and the early 20th century saw the beginning of restoration efforts at the palace, first led by Pierre de Nolhac, poet and scholar and the first conservator, who began his work in 1892. The conservation and restoration were interrupted by two world wars but have continued until the present day.[124] The palace returned to the world stage in June 1919, when, after six months of negotiations, the Treaty of Versailles, formally ending the First World War, was signed in the Hall of Mirrors. Between 1925 and 1928, the American philanthropist and multi-millionaire John D. Rockefeller, Jr. gave $2,166,000, the equivalent of about thirty million dollars today, to restore and refurbish the palace.[125] More work took place after World War II, with the restoration of the Royal Opera of Versailles. The theater was reopened in 1957, in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.[126] In 1978, parts of the palace were heavily damaged in a bombing committed by Breton terrorists.[127] Starting in the 1950s, when the museum of Versailles was under the directorship of Gérald van der Kemp, the objective was to restore the palace to its state – or as close to it as possible – in 1789 when the royal family left the palace. 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. One of the more costly endeavors for the museum and the French Fifth Republic has been to repurchase as much of the original furnishings as possible. Consequently, because furniture with a royal provenance – and especially furniture that was made for Versailles – is a highly sought-after commodity on the international market, the museum has spent considerable funds on retrieving much of the palace's original furnishings.[128] 21st centuryIn 2003, a new restoration initiative – the "Grand Versailles" project – was started, which began with the replanting of the gardens, which had lost over 10,000 trees during Cyclone Lothar on 26 December 1999. One part of the initiative, the restoration of the Hall of Mirrors, was completed in 2006.[129] Another major project was the further restoration of the backstage areas of the Royal Opera of Versailles in 2007 to 2009.[86] The Palace of Versailles is currently owned by the French state. Its formal title is the Public Establishment of the Palace, Museum and National Estate of Versailles. Since 1995, it has been run as a Public Establishment, with an independent administration and management supervised by the French Ministry of Culture.[130] The grounds of the palace will host the equestrian competition during the 2024 Summer Olympics.[131] Architecture and plan Plan of the main floor (c. 1837, with north to the right), showing the Hall of Mirrors in red, the Hall of Battles in green, the Royal Chapel in yellow, and the Royal Opera in blueThe Palace of Versailles is a visual history of French architecture from the 1630s to the 1780s. Its earliest portion, the corps de logis, was built for Louis XIII in the style of his reign with brick, marble, and slate,[6] which Le Vau surrounded in the 1660s with Enveloppe, an edifice that was inspired by Renaissance-era Italian villas.[132] When Jules Hardouin-Mansart made further expansions to the palace in the 1680s, he used the Enveloppe as the model for his work.[75] Neoclassical additions were made to the palace with the remodeling of the Ministers' Wings in the 1770s, by Ange-Jacques Gabriel, and after the Bourbon Restoration.[133] The palace was largely completed by the death of Louis XIV in 1715. The eastern facing palace has a U-shaped layout, with the corps de logis and symmetrical advancing secondary wings terminating with the Dufour Pavilion on the south and the Gabriel Pavilion to the north, creating an expansive cour d'honneur known as the Royal Court (Cour Royale). Flanking the Royal Court are two enormous asymmetrical wings that result in a façade of 402 metres (1,319 ft) in length.[134] Covered by around a million square feet (10 hectares) of roof, the palace has 2,143 windows, 1,252 chimneys, and 67 staircases.[135] The palace and its grounds have had a great influence on architecture and horticulture from the mid-17th century to the end of the 18th century. Examples of works influenced by Versailles include Christopher Wren's work at Hampton Court Palace, Berlin Palace, the Palace of La Granja, Stockholm Palace,[136] Ludwigsburg Palace, Karlsruhe Palace, Rastatt Palace,[137] Nymphenburg Palace, Schleissheim Palace,[136][138] and Esterházy Palace.[139] Royal Apartments Plan of the main floor in the central part of the palace (c. 1742),[140] showing the grand appartement du roi in dark blue, the appartement du roi in medium blue, the petit appartement du roi in light blue, the grand appartement de la reine in yellow, and the petit appartement de la reine in redThe construction in 1668–1671 of Louis 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. The addition was known at the time as the château neuf (new château). The grands appartements (Grand Apartments, also referred to as the State Apartments[141][142]) include the grand appartement du roi and the grand appartement de la reine. They occupied the main or principal floor of the château neuf, with three rooms in each apartment facing the garden to the west and four facing the garden parterres to the north and south, respectively. The private apartments of the king (the appartement du roi and the petit appartement du roi) and those of the queen (the petit appartement de la reine) remained in the château vieux (old château). Le Vau's design for the state apartments closely followed Italian models of the day, including the placement of the apartments on the main floor (the piano nobile, the next floor up from the ground level), a convention the architect borrowed from Italian palace design.[143] The king's State Apartment consisted of an enfilade of seven rooms, each dedicated to one of the known planets and their associated titular Roman deity. The queen's apartment formed a parallel enfilade with that of the grand appartement du roi. After the addition of the Hall of Mirrors (1678–1684) the king's apartment was reduced to five rooms (until the reign of Louis XV, when two more rooms were added) and the queen's to four. The queen's apartments served as the residence of three queens of France – Maria Theresa of Spain, wife of Louis XIV, Maria Leszczyńska, wife of Louis XV, and Marie Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI. Additionally, Louis XIV's granddaughter-in-law, Princess Marie-Adélaïde of Savoy, duchess of Burgundy, wife of Louis, Duke of Burgundy, occupied these rooms from 1697 (the year of her marriage) to her death in 1712.[c] Ambassador's Staircase Model of the former Ambassador's StaircaseThe Ambassadors' Staircase [fr] (Escalier des Ambassadeurs) was an imperial staircase built from 1674 to 1680 by François d'Orbay. Until Louis XV had it demolished in 1752 to create a courtyard for his private apartments,[144] the staircase was the primary entrance into the Palace of Versailles and the royal apartments especially.[145] It was entered from the courtyard via a vestibule that, cramped and dark, contrasted greatly with the tall, open space of the staircase – famously lit naturally with a skylight – so as to overawe visitors.[146][147] The staircase and walls of the room that contained it were clad in polychrome marble and gilded bronze,[148] with decor in the Ionic order.[149] Charles Le Brun painted the walls and ceiling of the room according to a festive theme to celebrate Louis XIV's victory in the Franco-Dutch War.[150] On the wall immediately above the staircase were trompe-l'œil paintings of people from the Four Parts of the World looking into the staircase over a balustrade, a motif repeated on the ceiling fresco.[151][152] There they were joined by allegorical figures for the twelve months of the year and various Classical Greek figures such as the Muses.[153] A marble bust of Louis XIV, sculpted by Jean Warin in 1665–66,[154] was placed in a niche above the first landing of the staircase.[148] The State Apartments of the KingMeal at the House of Simon the Pharisee by Veronese in the Salon of HerculesMeal at the House of Simon the Pharisee by Veronese in the Salon of Hercules Salon of AbundanceSalon of Abundance Salon of VenusSalon of Venus Salon of MercurySalon of MercuryThe construction of the Hall of Mirrors between 1678 and 1686 coincided with a major alteration to the State Apartments. They were originally intended as his residence, but the King transformed them into galleries for his finest paintings, and venues for his many receptions for courtiers. During the season from All-Saints Day in November until Easter, these were usually held three times a week, from six to ten in the evening, with various entertainments.[155] The Salon of HerculesThis was originally a chapel. It was rebuilt beginning in 1712 under the supervision of the First Architect to the King, Robert de Cotte, to showcase two paintings by Paolo Veronese, Eleazar and Rebecca and Meal at the House of Simon the Pharisee, which was a gift to Louis XIV from the Republic of Venice in 1664. The painting on the ceiling, The Apotheosis of Hercules, by François Lemoyne, was completed in 1736, and gave the room its name.[155][156] The Salon of AbundanceThe Salon of Abundance was the antechamber to the Cabinet of Curios (now the Games Room), which displayed Louis XIV's collection of precious jewels and rare objects. Some of the objects in the collection are depicted in René-Antoine Houasse's painting Abundance and Liberality (1683), located on the ceiling over the door opposite the windows. The Salon of VenusThis salon was used for serving light meals during evening receptions. The principal feature in this room is Jean Warin's life-size statue of Louis XIV in the costume of a Roman emperor. On the ceiling in a gilded oval frame is another painting by Houasse, Venus subjugating the Gods and Powers (1672–1681). Trompe-l'œil paintings and sculpture around the ceiling illustrate mythological themes.[157] The Salon of MercuryThe Salon of Mercury was the original State Bedchamber when Louis XIV officially moved the court and government to the palace in 1682. The bed is a replica of the original commissioned by King Louis-Philippe in the 19th century when he turned the palace into a museum. The ceiling paintings by the Flemish artist Jean Baptiste de Champaigne depict the god Mercury in his chariot, drawn by a rooster, and Alexander the Great and Ptolemy surrounded by scholars and philosophers. The Automaton Clock was made for the King by the royal clockmaker Antoine Morand in 1706. When it chimes the hour, figures of Louis XIV and Fame descend from a cloud.[703: Louis XIV

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