Debauched Facts About Versailles, The Palace Of The Sun King
“It was like the first time I visited Versailles. There was an eeriness, like I'd been there before. I don't know if I was Louis XIV or Marie Antoinette or a lowly groundskeeper, but I lived there.”―Maurice Minnifield
Over hundreds of years, the Palace of Versailles evolved from an out-of-the-way hunting lodge to the gigantic symbol of French monarchal hubris itself. Its heyday as a royal residence came in the 1600s and lasted until the late 1700s.
During that time, legendary names in French aristocracy—from Louis XIV, the “Sun King”
of France, to Marie Antoinette herself—hauled their royal hides down from Paris to live, love, fight, feast, and leave their mark within Versailles’ seemingly endless halls.
But was Versailles all boundless gardens and champagne? There’s also a weird, dark side to the palace: controversial treaties, ghost stories, and even time travel conspiracies have piqued an interest in Versailles in modern times.
Escape the guillotine and head to the Hall of Mirrors to reflect on these 44 decadent facts about the Palace of Versailles.
Versailles Facts
44. Little House on the French Prairie
It’s hard to believe that a symbol of monarchal absolutism started out as nothing but a small castle with a church. The earliest mention of Versailles was in a 1038 document that made to its owner: a minor lord by the name of “
Hugo de Versailles.”
43. Bad Listing
In the medieval period, Versailles was a palace on the decline thanks to the Plague and the Hundred Years’ War.
Although Versailles’ hot location—on the road between Paris and Dreux—invited some prosperity, these human disasters largely decimated the local population and surrounded Versailles with bad real estate mojo.
42. Life Before Louis
Although it’s really 17th century King Louis XIV (and all the other French Louis’s) who made Versailles famous, it was a Florentine courtier who probably brought the palace to minor royal attention.
In 1575, Albert de Gondi bought Versailles from its ancient owner. Gondi was a prominent figure in the court of King Henri II, who is more famously remembered as Catherine de Medici’s husband.
It would be a few more decades until Versailles truly became prominent with the royals, but it’s neat to know how it all started.
