on 26th December, 2013, we visited the Versailles Palace, built by Louis XIV in the 17th century.To me this place is associated with the turbulent times of the French Revolution. Louis XIII built a hunting lodge at the village of Versailles outside of Paris in 1624. The small structure became the base on which Louis XIV, constructed one of the most costly and extravagant buildings in the world. The men in charge of the project were Louis Le Vau, architect; Charles Le Brun, painter and decorator; and Andre Le Notre, landscape architect. About 37,000 acres of land were cleared to make room for tree-lined terraces, walkways, and thousands of flowering plants. There were 1,400 fountains and 400 pieces of sculpture. Louis XV and Louis XVI also called Versailles home. Austrian princess and wife of Louis XVI Marie Antoinette occupied the Queen’s apartment in which she had to submit to the obligations of her position: levee, toilette, audiences, public meals, etc. But, more used to the simple ceremonial of Austrian palaces, she found it hard to put up with the pomp and ceremony of the Etiquette at Versailles and sought a more intimate life. After the beginning of the French Revolutionin 1789, the royal family had to leave Versailles and move to the Tuileries Palace.Soon they were beheaded.
After the fall of the monarchy, the Palace of Versailles was put into the hands of the new government. In 1792 portions of the Royal furniture was sold and dispersed and many works of art from the Palace were taken to the Louvre in Paris. Napoleon Bonaparte later took an interest in the Palace and commissioned restoration work, which was later continued by the reinstated monarchy in 1814 by Louis XVI's brother, Louis XVIII. In the 1830's Louis-Phillippe decided to make the Palace into a museum of French history, which was inaugurated in 1837. The Palace continued to place an important role in European history: in 1871 the Hall of Mirrors was the setting for the Proclamation of the German Empire and in 1919 the Hall was the site was the Treaty of Versailles was signed which ended World War I.
