The alleys of the parks are ornamented with statues, vases and regularly cut yews, and bordered by hedges surrounding the shrubberies. The Grand Canal under Louis XIV. was covered with Venetian gondolas and other boats. Around the Tapis Vert are numerous groves, the most remarkable being the Ballroom or Rockery, with a waterfall; the Queen's Shrubbery, the scene of the intrigue of the diamond necklace; that of the Colonnade, the King's Shrubbery, the Grove of Apollo, and the basin of Enceladus.
Among the chief attractions of Versailles are the fountains and waterworks made by Louis XIV. in imitation of those he had seen at Fouquet's château of Vaux. Owing to the scarcity of water at Versailles, the works at Marly-le-Roi were constructed in order to bring water from the Seine; but part of the supply thus obtained was diverted to the newly erected château of Marly. Vast sums of money were spent and many lives lost in an attempt to bring water from the Eure, but the work was stopped by the war of 1688. At last the waters of the plateau between Versailles and Rambouillet were collected and led by channels (total length 98 m.) to the gardens, the soil of which covers innumerable pipes, vaults and aqueducts.
Beyond the present park, but within that of Louis XIV., are the two Trianons. The Grand Trianon was origi nally erected as a retreat for Louis XIV. in 1670, but in 1687 Mansart built a new palace on its site. Louis XV., after estab lishing a botanic garden, made Gabriel build in 1766 the small pavilion of the Petit Trianon. It was a favourite residence of Marie Antoinette, who had a garden laid out in the English style, with rustic villas in which the ladies of the court led a mimic peasant-life. The Grand Trianon contains a museum of state carriages, old harness, etc.
The church of Notre-Dame, built by Mansart, and the cathedral of St. Louis, built by his grandson, are uninteresting. The celebrated tennis-court (Jeu de Paume) is now used as a museum. The palace of the prefecture, built during the Second Empire, was a residence of the president of the republic from 1871 to 1879. The military hospital formerly accommodated 2,000 people in the service of the palace. A school of horticulture was founded in 1874, attached to an excellent garden, near the Swiss Lake.
Versailles is the seat of a bishop, a prefect and a court of assizes, and has tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a board of trade-arbitrators, a chamber of commerce and a branch of the Bank of France, and, among its educational establishments, lycees and training colleges for both sexes and a technical school.
It is an important garrison town and has a school of military engineering and artillery. Distilling, boot and shoe making, and market-gardening are carried on.
Louis XIII. often hunted in the woods of Versailles, and built a small pavilion at the corner of what is now the rue de la Pompe and the avenue of St. Cloud. In 1627 he entrusted Jacques Lemercier with the plan of a château. In 1661 Louis Levau made some additions which were further developed by him in 1668. In 1678 Mansart took over the work, the Galerie des Glaces, the chapel and the two wings being due to him. In 1682 Louis XIV. took up his residence in the château. Till his time the town was represented by a few houses to the south of the present Place d'Armes; but land was given to the lords of the court and new houses sprang up, chiefly in the north quarter. Under Louis XV. the parish of St. Louis was formed to the south for the increasing population, and new streets were built to the north on the meadows of Clagny. Under Louis XVI. the town extended to the east and received a municipality; in 1802 it gave its name to a bishopric. In 1783 the armistice preliminary to the treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United States was signed at Versailles. The states-general met here on the 5th of May 1789, and on the loth of June took the solemn oath in the Tennis Court by which they bound themselves not to separate till they had given France a constitution. Napoleon neglected, and Louis XVIII. and Charles X. merely kept up, Versailles, but Louis Philippe made great alterations, some of which are being altered back to the original designs in a restoration recently under taken, partly with the help of a large gift from the United States of America. In 1870 and 1871 the town was the headquarters of the German army besieging Paris, and in the Galerie des Glaces William I. of Prussia was crowned German emperor in 1871.
After the peace Versailles was the seat of the French National Assembly while the commune was triumphant in Paris, and of the two chambers till 1879, being declared the official capital of France. After the World War the treaty between the Allied Powers and Germany was signed in the Galerie des Glaces.
See A. P. Gille, Versailles et les deux Trianons, with illustrations by M. Lambert (Tours, 1899, 1900) ; P. de Nolhac, La Creation de Ver sailles (Versailles, 1901) ; J. E. Farmer, Versailles and the Court under Louis XIV. (New York, 1905).