Palace of Versailles

The Palace of Versailles is a château and historic monument in Versailles in the Yvelines department of France, southwest of Paris. It served as the principal residence of the French kings Louis XIV, Louis XV, and Louis XVI. The king, the court, and the royal government lived there permanently from 6 May 1682 until 6 October 1789, except during the Regency years (1715–1723). Conceived by Louis XIV to glorify the French monarchy, the palace became the most important architectural project of his reign and is considered one of the masterpieces of French classical architecture. It exerted major influence across Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries in architecture and the decorative arts. The palace forms a vast and complex ensemble of courtyards and buildings designed to maintain architectural harmony. It covers about 63,154 square metres and contains roughly 2,300 rooms, around 1,000 of which belong to the National Museum of the History of France housed in the Palace and the Trianons. The park of the Palace of Versailles covers 815 hectares today, compared with more than 8,000 hectares before the French Revolution.