Versailles

VERSAILLES, a town of northern France, capital of the department of Seine-et-Oise, 12 m. by road W.S.W. of Paris, with which it is connected by rail and tram. Pop. (1931) 59,712. Ver sailles owes its existence to the palace built by Louis XIV. It stands 46o ft. above the sea, and its fresh healthy air and nearness to the capital attract many residents. The three avenues of St. Cloud, Paris and Sceaux converge in the Place d'Armes. Between them stand the former stables of the palace, now occupied by the artillery and engineers. To the south lies the quarter of Satory, the oldest part of Versailles, with the cathedral of St. Louis, and to the north the new quarter, with the church of Notre-Dame.

The

the west of the Place d'Armes a gilded iron 'See Gaye, Cart. ined. p. 367.

gate and a stone balustrade mark off the great court of the palace. In this court stand statues of Richelieu, Conde, Du Guesclin and other famous Frenchmen. At the highest point there is an eques trian statue in bronze of Louis XIV. To the right and left of this stretch the long wings of the palace, while behind ex tend the Cour Royale and beyond it the smaller Cour de Marbre, to the north, south and west of which rise the central buildings. To the north the Chapel Court and to the south the Princes Court, with vaulted passages leading to the gardens, separate the side from the central buildings. The palace chapel (1696-1710), the roof of which can be seen from afar rising above the rest of the building, was the last important work of J. Har douin-Mansart.

The north wing contains galleries and halls of historical pic tures and sculptures, and other great apartments, the most famous of which historically is the theatre built under Louis XV. where was held the banquet to the Gardes du Corps, the toasts at which provoked riots that drove Louis XVI. from Versailles. Here the National Assembly met from the loth of March 1871 till the proclamation of the constitution in 1875, and the Senate from the 8th of March 1876 till the return of the two chambers to Paris in 1879. The central buildings include the former dauphin's apartments and many others on the ground floor and fine state-rooms on the first floor with the great "Galerie des Glaces" (1678) overlooking the park. The hall of Hercules was

till 1710 the upper half of the old chapel famed for its associations with Bossuet, Massillon and Bourdaloue. The queen's apart ments and the rooms- of Louis XIV. are on this floor. The Oeil de Boeuf, named from its oval window, was the anteroom where the courtiers waited till the king rose. It leads to the bedroom in which Louis XIV. died, after using it from 1701, and which Louis XV. occupied from 1722 to 1738. In the south wing of the palace, on the ground-floor, is the Gallery of the Republic and the First Empire. In the south wing is also the room where the Chamber of Deputies met from 1876 till 1879, and where the Congress has since sat to revise the constitution voted at Versailles in 1875 and to elect the president of the republic. The first floor is almost entirely occupied by the Battle Gallery. In the window openings are the names of soldiers killed while fighting for France, with the names of the battles in which they fell, and there are more than eighty busts of princes, admirals, constables, marshals and celebrated warriors who met a similar death. Another room is given up to exhibits connected with the events of 1830 and the accession of Louis Philippe.

The Gardens.

The gardens of Versailles were planned by Andre Le Notre. The ground falls away on every side from a terrace adorned with ornamental basins, statues and bronze groups. Westwards from the palace extends a broad avenue, planted with large trees, and having along its centre the grass of the "Tapis Vert"; it is continued by the Grand Canal, 200 ft. wide and 1 m. long. On the south of the terrace two splendid staircases lead past the Orangery to the Swiss Lake, beyond which is the wood of Satory. On the north an avenue, with twenty-two groups of three children, each group holding a marble basin from which a jet of water rises, slopes gently down to the Basin of Neptune, remark able for its fine sculptures and abundant water. The Orangery (built in 1685 by Mansart) is the finest piece of architecture at Versailles; the central gallery is 5o8 ft. long and 42 wide, and each of the side galleries is 375 ft. long. There are 1,200 orange trees, one of which is said to date from 1421, and 300 other kinds of trees.