Versailles Castle ,Versailles apartments, Versailles Park,Versailles Trianons

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Versailles Estate: the Château, the Park , the Orangery, the Chateaux de Trianon .

This site , made by a French artist , includes about 100 photos 

On all the miniatures you can click to see a large 640 x 480 JPEG  pictures .This is the ONLY  site offering 100 high quality pictures of Versailles .

 

On this site , you can prepare your visit of Versailles, with pictures, many pictures ,made by an artist and photographer Georges d'Alba ,art and castles lover…Georges d'Alba simply visited Versailles as an ordinary  tourist  . He spent one day in the Versailles Estate ...this is what a normal visitor can discover in a day touring .You cannot rent Versailles Castle (smile!) but you can rent G d'Alba's castle in Loire Valley ! See :

  Rent a Castle in Loire Valley

Holidays Castle for 30

Bedroom - Suites in a Loire Valley Castle

 

All Photos rights reserved.

 

Click on the Versailles miniatures to enlarge them .

The Marble Courtyard       The Façade on Park

 The Water Parterre            The Hall of Mirrors

The Château de Versailles is one of the largest castles in the world .The Chateau de Versailles has ...  more than 2,000 windows, 700 rooms, 1250 fireplaces, 67 staircases and more than 1,800 acres of park. The  paintings, tapestries , sculptures ,furniture of this fabulous castle , have been executed by the best  Italian and French artists of the time .

In 1623, King Louis XIII - father of Louis XIV , the Sun King , built a hunting lodge, a little  château of brick, stone, and slate . The king liked so much this little castle in the middle of such a good hunting park,  that he soon had it enlarged by  Philibert Le Roy . 

From 1661  the young King  Louis XIV   had his  architects, Louis Le Vau and Jules Hardouin Mansart embellish the early Versailles castle. . From 1668 to 1670 was built a second building enveloping the old Versailles castle with new even style stone façades. After Le Vau's death in 1670 , François d'Orbay finished the work.

In 1682, the Château de Versailles  became the official residence of the Sun King and his Court ,  replacing the Louvre and Saint-Germain Castles.When the king moved into the Versailles castle in 1682 ,before the construction was finished, he insisted that the castle was for the people, and that his home be open to one and all. Gates of the Chateau stayed open all day long, and guards only checked for guns that could endanger the king.  From 1678 to 1684,  the terrace of the new chateau was transformed into the Hall of Mirrors, symbolizing the power of the Sun King .The construction of  North and South castle's Wings, the Orangery, the  Stables ,the  Royal Chapel was supervised by royal architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart .The last construction started during the reign of Louis XIV is the Royal Chapel .It was completed in 1710 by Robert de Cotte. 

Around 1770, during the reign of King Louis XV, the famous architect Gabriel built the Royal Opera of Versailles. He also transformed some of  the facades of the Versailles Château on  town side, in line with  the rules of  Classical Architecture and created  a new  colonnaded  building. Finally, in 1820,a symmetrical pavilion  was erected  on the other side of the Great Courtyard of the Versailles castle.

Mansart also built during the reign of Louis XIV, in the place where was  the former village of Trianon , a marble Castle called The "Grand Trianon" or "Marble Trianon"...Louis XV ordered to Gabriel a small castle : the "Petit Trianon". In fact the "Petit Trianon" was offered to the Queen Marie Antoinette by the King Louis XVI when he acceded to the throne...Marie Antoinette also wanted a "village" of her own in the style of Normandy Cottages , the  Queens Hamlet in a romantic  English Garden .

Financial difficulties and the French Revolution stopped the building works in the Versailles Estate. The "King of the French" Louis Philippe, transformed  in 1837 the Chateau de Versailles in a museum  dedicated to "all the glories of France". Chateau of Versailles' history galleries are the largest History Museum in the world (18,000 square meters) The history of France is told through paintings and sculptures .Many of them have been commissioned for this educational purpose to the artists of the time.

Versailles ' fabulous gardens and park are  almost as spectacular as the castle. Le Nôtre designed this Versailles garden including fountains,jets , waterfalls ,statues ,water parterres, formal gardens, Grand Perspective and Grand Canal, to set off the Castle's architecture ...

Nowadays, about eight million visitors discover  this architectural and cultural masterpiece every year!  The visit of Chateau de Versailles and of the Loire Valley Castles, Chambord , Amboise, Blois, Chenonceau...is an absolute must, when touring France.

[ Courtyards & façades ] [ Façades on park side ] [ The Hall of Mirrors ] [ State Apartments ] [ Private Apartments ] [ The park ] [ Recommended  links ] [ Trianon ] [ The Queen's Hamlet ]

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 For Tours, Castle's opening hours, entrance rates, do not Email us, but contact Tourists Offices, Syndicats d'Initiative or Maisons de la France.