Château de Versailles

The exterior view of the Château of Versailles from the town is immensely impressive. Three broad avenues meet in the Place d'Armes at the entrance to the forecourt. Flanking the central avenue, the Avenue de Paris, are the former Royal Stables (Ecuries Royales; Mansart, 1679-85). The forecourt is entered through an iron gate. On the far side, at the entrance to the Royal Courtyard (Cour Royale), is an equestrian statue of Louis XIV (1835). At the far end of the Cour Royale, which could be used only by the royal family, is the narrower Marble Courtyard (Cour de Marbre), which until 1830 was on a slightly higher level and had colored marble paving. The entrance to the Château, which also gives access to the park, is on the right-hand side of the Cour Royale.

The parts of the building enclosing the Cour de Marbre are the oldest in the Château, dating back to Louis XIII's hunting lodge. Here, on the first floor, are the royal private apartments. Along the two sides of the hunting lodge Le Vau built on another range of rooms for the state apartments (Grands Appartements, on the first floor) and the apartments of the heir to the throne on the ground floor. Mansart linked these two suites of rooms by building the Hall of Mirrors (Galerie des Glaces) along the park front of the building and added the north and south wings. Then with the Chapel (by Mansart and Cotte) and the Opera (by Jacques-Ange Gabriel) the Château was complete in the form in which we see it today. The park front, with its projecting central section, is 680m/2,230ft long.