The History of the Palace of Versailles

Name: Palace of Versailles Tours
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Versailles went from a hunting lodge in a marsh to the seat of a European government in sixty years, and then lost that role in a single October night. The dates below are the estate's own, and they are the frame every room on a guided tour hangs on.

1607 to 1634 — a hunting lodge in a marsh

The future Louis XIII hunted here for the first time on 24 August 1607. In June 1624 he built a small lodge on the site, and between 1631 and 1634 he rebuilt it in brick and stone. Nothing about it suggested what came next. Louis XIV saw it as a child in October 1641.

1661 — Louis XIV starts building

The year the great expansion began, and the year André Le Nôtre was handed the gardens. The work on the grounds alone took him roughly forty years. The building went up in campaigns around the old lodge rather than replacing it, which is why the small brick facade is still in the middle of the courtyard.

1682 — the court moves in

From 1682 Versailles was the main residence of the French court and the seat of government. That is the fact the whole building is designed around: the ceremonial route through the King's Grand Apartment, the throne platform at the end of the Hall of Mirrors, the public bedchamber. Several thousand people lived and worked here.

Louis XV and Louis XVI, 1715 to 1789

Louis XV returned the court to Versailles on 15 June 1722 and died here on 10 May 1774. His reign added the Petit Trianon, finished in 1768, and the Royal Opera, built for his grandson's marriage in 1770. Louis XVI married Marie-Antoinette that year and gave her the Petit Trianon in 1774.

5 and 6 October 1789 — the court leaves and does not come back

The royal family was forced to leave for Paris on 6 October 1789, and the court never returned. That single night is why the building survives as a museum rather than as a working palace, and why the furniture in most rooms is a reconstruction rather than an original.

1833 to 1837 — Louis-Philippe makes it a museum

Louis-Philippe founded a museum here in 1833 dedicated to all the glories of France and opened it in 1837. He carved the dedication across the pediment, where it still is, and built the Gallery of Battles to carry the idea. Versailles has been a museum for longer than it was a court.

1871 and 1919 — two treaties in one room

The German Empire was proclaimed in the Hall of Mirrors in 1871. Forty-eight years later, on 28 June 1919, the Treaty of Versailles ending the First World War was signed in the same room, and the choice of room was not an accident. It is the only space in the building whose fame is largely about the twentieth century.

1979 — World Heritage

Versailles was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1979. The listing covers the Palace and its park, which is a fairer description of the place than the Palace alone. Eight hundred hectares of it are outside the building.

The chronology in one table

Dates as published by the estate.

Date	What happened
24 August 1607	The future Louis XIII hunts at Versailles for the first time
June 1624	Louis XIII builds a small hunting lodge
1631–1634	The lodge is rebuilt in brick and stone
October 1641	Louis XIV visits as a child
1661	Louis XIV begins the great expansion; Le Nôtre takes on the gardens
1668–1679	The Grand Canal is dug
1678–1684	The Hall of Mirrors is built
1682	Versailles becomes the seat of the court and the government
1687	Construction of the Grand Trianon begins
1710	The Royal Chapel is finished
1768	The Petit Trianon is completed
1770	The Royal Opera opens; Louis XVI marries Marie-Antoinette
1774	Marie-Antoinette is given the Petit Trianon
1783–1786	The Queen's Hamlet is built
5–6 October 1789	The royal family leaves for Paris
1833	Louis-Philippe founds the Museum of the History of France
1837	The museum opens
1871	The German Empire is proclaimed in the Hall of Mirrors
28 June 1919	The Treaty of Versailles is signed in the same room
1979	Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site

The rooms these dates happened in are described on the Palace page, the grounds Le Nôtre laid out are on the gardens page, and a Palace of Versailles guided tour puts a guide beside you for the whole story. Every departure is on Palace of Versailles Tours.