Versailles
Versailles was certainly the shooting star in French history. Louis XIV, the sun king wanted to build a grand place to escape Parisian mobs and to keep an eye out on his scheming nobles. When his chief minister Cardinal Mazarin died in 1661, the 22-year old was prepared to show his kingdom his power. However, in exceptionally bad timing, his finance minister, Nicolas Fouquet, had finished his new palace, Vaux-le-Vicomte, and invited Louis XIV to his new palace for a weekend of extravagant entertainment. To show his wealth, the king imprisoned Fouquet and then hired a building team- Louis Le Vau, the architect, Andre Le Norte, the landscape designer, and Charles Le Brun, the interior artist. He was going to start work on a much grander chateau. Louis XIV was determined to show a symbol to embody majesty and power of the French monarchy. But after Louis Vau’s death, Jules Hardouin Mansart (1646-1708) was commissioned to triple the size of the palace.
It took thirty two years to complete the building of Versailles and the cost to build it was about one hundred million dollars. No one knows the exact cost of it because many people believe that Louis had the records of it destroyed for various unknown reasons. It took about thirty five thousand men to build the great palace in that thirty two years that it was worked on.
The palace is surrounded by acres of splendid gardens, adorned with statues and fountains. Inside, rooms are covered with gold and jewels. However there is the grandest room and most remarkable feature in the chateau. It is the hall of mirrors, and it is an overwhelming and breathtaking experience. Many glass mirrors make the walls, and not to mention the chandeliers above. The Versailles, with paintings, gardens, fountains, and gardens is one of the most lavish, extravagant place on Earth. Versailles could house ten thousand persons if used to its full capabilities. It had hundreds of spectacular rooms with marble columns, polished inlaid floors,
It took thirty two years to complete the building of Versailles and the cost to build it was about one hundred million dollars. No one knows the exact cost of it because many people believe that Louis had the records of it destroyed for various unknown reasons. It took about thirty five thousand men to build the great palace in that thirty two years that it was worked on.
The palace is surrounded by acres of splendid gardens, adorned with statues and fountains. Inside, rooms are covered with gold and jewels. However there is the grandest room and most remarkable feature in the chateau. It is the hall of mirrors, and it is an overwhelming and breathtaking experience. Many glass mirrors make the walls, and not to mention the chandeliers above. The Versailles, with paintings, gardens, fountains, and gardens is one of the most lavish, extravagant place on Earth. Versailles could house ten thousand persons if used to its full capabilities. It had hundreds of spectacular rooms with marble columns, polished inlaid floors,