Versailles Visitor's Guide [antikvár]

I,!' I, , ¦ I iNTRODUaiON Versailles is known throughout the world as the largest and most sumptuous palace ever built. In die mind of the visitor mifamiliar with the twists and turns of die lustorj' of France, the names of Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette are jumbled up together, and the other kings, queens and princes who lived here are too often neglected. In their endiusiasm for an over-elaborated symbolism developed only after die event, certain au-diors have attempted to explain Versailles as an expression of the solar myth, on the pretext that Louis XIV was known as the Sun King (many of his forebears had been called the same thing), and that his bedchamber was placed at the geometrical centre of the chateau (which was a result of the re-working of the Royal Apartments in 1700). I n reality, the importance of Versailles and its inhabitants must be sought elsewhere. Radier dian a solar symbol, Versailles was the symbol of the monarchy called the Ancien Regime, sometimes termed the absolute monarchy, which would however be better described as personal monarchy by divine right. Curiously, it was at Versailles, in a hunting-lodge soon to be replaced by a small chateau, during the Journée des Dupes in 1630, that Louis XllI confirmed Cardinal Richelieu in his powers, wholly possessed of royal authority just as had been Henri IV, the first king to come and hunt in the woods of Versailles. It was at Versailles in 1789 that the Estates General met for the last time, and the ancient Capetian monarchy which had ruled over France since 987 began its death agony. Between f630 and 1789 die chateau grew and its park developed into its present form, while a new town was built alongside it. From Louis XllFs hunting-lodge, Louis XIV made a country house, wMch grew larger and larger and ever more impressive, and in April 1682 he decided to establish his capital at Versailles. Le Vau and later Hardouin-Mansart, his architects. Le Brun, his painter and Le Nôtre his landscape gardener all made their mark, but die King's influence was decisive. From his modier Anne of Austria and his grandmother Marie de Medici Louis XIV had inherited a taste for the plastic arts; from liis father Louis XIH, whom he had hardly known, and of whom he was told httle, he got his taste for music. In 1715 he was succeeded by lus great-grand-son Louis XV, who made no changes to die ar-cliitecture of the chateau mitil towards die end of his reign in 1770. He had nonethe-