The Palace of Versailles Notes

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Basia in The Palace of Versailles, 2019

French kings first chose Versailles because it was great for hunting, well forested with lots of animals. Louis XIII, who lived 1601-1643, bought up land, built a chateau and went on hunting trips. Originally he build a small hunting lodge.
The Palace of Versailles became the official royal residence in 1682 and the official residence of the court of France on May 6, 1682. It was abandoned after the death of Louis XIV in 1715.
Louis XIV became a king at the age of 4. Later he proclaimed himself the Sun King so people had to revolve around him, like the planets revolve around the Sun.
At first Louis XIV lived in Paris but later he built himself a new palace in Versailles. It was 20 km away from Paris. It was a strategic decision. He did it because he wasn't trusted by the politicians who wanted to manipulate him and kill him. He brought nobility closer to him, to his new palace. Everything showed that the king is more powerful than them or anybody else.
The reason for constructing this palace was to show off the wealth. Versailles was built to impress the world. The Palace of Versailles is a symbol for Absolutism during the Ancien Régime.
The Palace of Versailles was vital to Louis XIV, the Sun King, to enhance France's status in Europe. Not just as military power but in the arts as well. For example, when the Hall of Mirrors was built, mirrors were usually imported from Italy and very expensive. Louis XIV wanted to show that France could produce mirrors just as fine as those produced in Italy. Therefore, all the mirrors of that hall were made in French. The Hall of Mirrors was originally lit with 3000 candles.
World War I was officially ended in 1919 with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in the Hall of Mirrors.
The symbolism of the Sun King is very visible in the architecture of the Versailles. The painter Lebrun, who designed the iconographic program of the Palace, focused paintings, sculptures and the architecture to celebrate the King.
The ceilings are decorated with illustrations of Roman gods with Louis XIV himself painted as Apollo, the Sun God. Throughout the palace there are intertwined L's of his name. It all serves as a constant reminder that Louis XIV is the king and all power comes from him by the grace of God. I love these ceilings. I also like designs of some furniture.
Louis XIV's bedroom was built on the upper floor and located centrally. It was the most important room in the palace. Two significant ceremonies took place there, the king wake up (lever) and go to sleep (coucher) publicly, surrounded by his courtiers. The king also had a ceremony for putting on and taking off his hunting boots.
Louis XIV died of gangrene, right in his bed, on September 1st, 1715, four days before his 77th birthday. He suffered agonizing pain for a week. He had been a king for 72 years, the longest reign in the history of France. His 5-year-old grandson succeeded him as Louis XV.
The importance of the courtiers' presence at these ceremonies continued into the reigns of Louis XV and XVI.
A painting called “The Feast in the House of Simon the Pharisee” by Paolo Veronese, an Italian painter, was originally painted for the refectory of the Servites in Venice in 1570. In 1664 it became a gift of the Republic of Venice to Louis XIV. In 1712 the architects designated a special room for that painting, called Hercules Salon.
The king Louis XIV had 3 meter high throne in the Apollo Salon and worshiped in a royal chapel, built between 1699 and 1710. The chapel spanned two stories. For me it was the most beautiful structure of Versailles.
Despite the richness of the palace, there was not proper theater. In 1768 Louis XV ordered to build the royal opera. It had a mechanism that allowed the orchestra level to be raised to the stage. It was used for dancing and banqueting as well. The opera required 3,000 candles to be burned for opening night and was rarely used due to its high cost and the poor shape of France's finances.
The Palace of Versailles has 3.166 mi² (8199902.4 m².) It was capable of holding up to 20,000 people, has 700 rooms, more than 2,000 windows, 1,250 chimneys, and 67 staircases. The kitchens of the Palace of Versailles were massive. They were also located far from the King's dining room that food was often cold by the time it arrived. There were more than 200 servants in the Palace of Versailles to serve the King of France. Some of the servants had the job of emptying the royal chamber pot (toilet). Apart form the royal family the palace housed many members of the French nobility and official government offices. There were secret corridors and doorways so the service could come in and out easily.
As the French government moved into Versailles the king found himself swamped by work in his palace. For that reason he built the Grand Trianon, also called Marble Trianon. It was more modest and a mile away (1.6 kilometers) from the main palace. The Grand Trianon became a private retreat where only Louis XIV and those invited could visit.
The Versailles gardens took 40 years to complete. Louis XIV valued them as much as the palace. A series of gardens, created in a formal style, contained 400 sculptures and 1400 pressurized fountains. The formality and splendor of the gardens symbolized Louis XIV's absolute power, even over the nature. The gardens of the Palace of Versailles cover 30,000+ acres. A grand canal, running about a mile long, was used for naval demonstrations and had gondolas, donated by the Republic of Venice, steered by gondoliers. Today visitors can use rowing boats.
Salon of the Nobility - Queen Marie-Thèrése, married to Louis XIV, led the Salon of the Nobility to serve as an antechamber. Whenever Marie Leszczinska, married to Louis XV, entertained her friends they would gather in this room and enjoy each other’s company. Marie Antoinette, married to Louis XVI, redecorated it completely. She only kept the paintings of the ceiling (by Michel Corneille) and added a fresh apple-green damask as a tapestry. The tapestry was lined with a golden stripe.
Marie Leszczyńska, queen of France (1703-1768), daughter of the deposed King of Poland, married Louis XV in 1725. She was 21 years old, well-educated but very modest. The king was only 15 years old. She gave the king ten children, eight girls and two boys, of whom one survived: the Dauphin Louis (1729–1765), the father of Louis XVI. The Queen was kept out of serious business and not held in high regard in the Court. She devoted her energies to the convent she founded in the town of Versailles for the education of poor girls. She also oversaw the moral and religious education of the Dauphin, her son, who died in 1765, three years before her. Even though Queen Marie was not respected by the royal court she enjoyed great popularity among the public for her good heart.
Near the Grand Trianon, Marie Antoinette, the queen of Louis XVI, created an estate for herself. She wanted to recreate some of her dearly missed childhood. Marie Antoinette was only fourteen years old when she married Louis XVI. He was fifteen years old. They got married on 16 May 1770. Marie Antoinette was a daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Francis I and the Empress Maria Theresa. Maria Theresa helped her daughter to deal with the rigorous etiquette.
Marie Antoinette was known for her lavishness, but in reality she did not always enjoy being queen. Her estate shows that she missed a simpler life and was homesick for Austria. She took over a building called the Petit Trianon and built a number of structures, including a working farm, called the Hamlet. The farm provided the palace with fresh produce, had a nearby house and small theater. Out of the whole Versailles complex the Hamlet is my mom’s most favorite place.
The French Revolution began on July 14, 1789 when revolutionaries stormed a prison called the Bastille. The French Revolution was a period of time in France when the people overthrew the monarchy and took control of the government. The French Revolution lasted 10 years from 1789 to 1799. The French people looked at the Palace of Versailles as a symbol of what was wrong with life in France at the time. The nobility and the aristocracy had everything they wanted, and the people of France were poor and starving. Cause of the French Revolution was political conflict between the Monarchy and the nobility over the “reform” of the tax system led to paralysis and bankruptcy.
In January 1793 the radical new republic placed King Louis XVI on trial, convicted him of treason and condemned to death. On January 21, 1793 he was dragged to the guillotine and executed. Marie Antoinette was imprisoned in the medieval prison Conciergarie, now a museum. On October 16, 1793 Marie Antoinette was executed on the guillotine as well. Two years later, on June 8, 1795, their son Dauphin, named Louis XVII, died at the age of 10 of tuberculosis aggravated by his brutal prison conditions. Only Marie Thérèse, the oldest of Marie Antoinette's children, survived to her adulthood. She died in October 1851, at the age 72, in exile. In her last testament, she forgave those who'd made her life so miserable, following, she said, the example of her parents.
The French revolution was successful to achieve rights and freedom for the common populace of France. The absolute power of the French monarchy collapsed.
The French Revolution failed to establish a constitutional monarchy or a representative government. France began with the absolute monarch of Louis XVI in 1789 and ended with the military dictatorship of Napoleon Bonaparte. After gaining political power in France in a 1799 coup d'état, he crowned himself emperor 5 years later, in 1804.
Following the French Revolution the palace fell under the control of the new republican government. The Versailles complex was nearly destroyed. Many of its furnishings were sold to help pay for the subsequent Revolutionary Wars.
When Napoleon came to power, he had an apartment created for himself in the Grand Trianon, complete with a map room.
Several decades later, the King Louis Philippe (reign 1830-1848) turned Versailles into a museum. In the museum he created, showcased different aspects of French history.
The golden gate to the Palace of Versailles was replaced more than 200 years after being torn down during the French Revolution.