The name of Versailles appears for the first time in a medieval document dated 1038. In the
feudal system of
medieval France, the lords of Versailles came directly under the king of France, with no intermediary overlords between them and the king; yet they were not very important lords. At the end of the 11th century castle and the Saint Julien church. Its farming activity and its location on the road from Paris to
Dreux and
Normandy brought prosperity to the village, culminating in prosperity at the end of the 13th century, the so-called "century of
Saint Louis", famous for the prosperity of northern France and the building of
Gothic cathedrals. The 14th century brought the
Black Death and the
Hundred Years' War, and with them death and destruction. At the end of the Hundred Years' War in the 15th century, the village started to recover, with a population of only 100 inhabitants. In 1561,
Martial de Loménie, Secretary of State for Finances under King
Charles IX, became the lord of Versailles. He obtained permission to establish four annual fairs and a weekly market on Thursdays. The population of Versailles then was 500 inhabitants. Martial de Loménie was murdered during the
St. Bartholomew's Day massacre (24 August 1572). In 1575,
Albert de Gondi, a man from
Florence who had come to France with
Catherine de' Medici, bought the
seigneury of Versailles.
Louis XIII built the original hunting lodge that would become the
Palace of Versailles under his son and successor Louis XIV Henceforth Versailles was the possession of the
Gondi family, a family of wealthy and influential parliamentarians at the
Parlement of Paris. Several times during the 1610s, the de Gondis invited King
Louis XIII to hunt in the large forests around Versailles. In 1622, the king purchased a parcel of forest for his private hunting. In 1624, he acquired more and entrusted
Philibert Le Roy with the construction of a small hunting lodge of red bricks and stone with a slate roof. In 1632, the king bought the totality of the land and seigneury of Versailles from
Jean-François de Gondi. The hunting lodge was enlarged to the size of a small château between 1632 and 1634. At the death of Louis XIII, in 1643, the village had 1,000 inhabitants. This small château was the site of one of the historical events that took place during the reign of Louis XIII, on 10 November 1630, when, on the
Day of the Dupes, the party of the queen mother was defeated and
Richelieu was confirmed as Prime Minister.
Louis XIV King
Louis XIV, son of Louis XIII, was only four years old when his father died. It was 20 years later, in 1661, when Louis XIV commenced his personal reign, that the young king showed interest in Versailles. The idea of leaving Paris, where, as a child, he had experienced first-hand the insurrection of the
Fronde, had never left him. Louis XIV commissioned his architect
Le Vau and his landscape architect
Le Nôtre to transform the castle of his father, as well as the park, in order to accommodate the court. In 1678, after the
Treaty of Nijmegen, the king decided that the court and the government would be established permanently in Versailles, which happened on 6 May 1682. At the same time, a new city was emerging from the ground, resulting from an ingenious decree of the king dated 22 May 1671, whereby the king authorized anyone to acquire a lot in the new city for free. There were only two conditions to acquire a lot: 1- a token tax of 5 shillings (
5 sols) per arpent of land should be paid every year ($0.03 per per year in 2005 US dollars); 2- a house should be built on the lot according to the plans and models established by the
Surintendant des Bâtiments du Roi (architect in chief of the royal demesne). The plans provided for a city built symmetrically with respect to the
Avenue de Paris (which starts from the entrance of the castle). The roofs of the buildings and houses of the new city were not to exceed the level of the Marble Courtyard, at the entrance of the castle (built above a hill dominating the city), so that the perspective from the windows of the castle would not be obstructed. The old village and the Saint Julien church were demolished to make room for buildings housing the administrative services managing the daily life in the castle. On both sides of the
Avenue de Paris were built the Notre-Dame neighbourhood and the Saint-Louis neighbourhood, with new large churches, markets, and aristocratic mansions, all built in a very homogeneous style according to the models established by the
Surintendant des Bâtiments du Roi. Versailles was a vast construction site for many years. Little by little, all those who needed or desired to live close to the centre of power came to Versailles. At the death of the Sun King in 1715, the village of Versailles had turned into a city of approximately 30,000 inhabitants.
Louis XV and Louis XVI When the court of King
Louis XV returned to Versailles in 1722, the city had 24,000 inhabitants. With the reign of Louis XV, Versailles grew even further. Versailles was the capital of the most powerful kingdom in Europe, and the whole of Europe admired its new architecture and design trends. Soon enough, the strict building rules decided under Louis XIV were not respected anymore, real estate speculation flourished, and the lots that had been given for free under Louis XIV were now on the market for hefty prices. By 1744, the population reached 37,000 inhabitants. The cityscape changed considerably under kings Louis XV and
Louis XVI. Buildings were now taller. King Louis XV built a Ministry of War, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs (where the
Treaty of Paris (1783) ending the
American Revolutionary War was signed in 1783 with the United Kingdom), and a Ministry of the Navy. By 1789, the population had reached 60,000 inhabitants, and Versailles was now the seventh or eighth-largest city in France, and one of the largest cities in Europe.
French Revolution Seat of political power, Versailles naturally became the cradle of the
French Revolution. The
Estates-General met in Versailles on 5 May 1789. The members of the Third Estate took the
Tennis Court Oath on 20 June 1789, and the
National Constituent Assembly abolished
feudalism on 4 August 1789. Eventually, on 5 and 6 October 1789, a crowd of women joined by some members of the national guard from Paris invaded the castle to protest bread prices and forced the royal family to move to Paris. The National Constituent Assembly followed the king to Paris soon afterwards, and Versailles lost its role as the capital city. During this turbulent time,
Jean-François Coste, who had also been the chief physician of the King's Armies, was appointed mayor of Versailles. From then on, Versailles lost a good deal of its inhabitants. From 60,000, the population had declined to 26,974 inhabitants by 1806. The castle, stripped of its furniture and ornaments during the Revolution, was left abandoned, with only
Napoleon briefly staying one night there and then leaving the castle for good.
Louis-Philippe, who took the throne in the
July Revolution of 1830, transformed the palace into a National Museum dedicated to "all the glories of France" in 1837. Versailles had become a sleepy town, a place of pilgrimage for those nostalgic for the old monarchy.
19th century to the present day The
Franco-Prussian War of 1870 put Versailles in the limelight again. On 18 January 1871, the victorious Germans proclaimed the king of
Prussia,
Wilhelm I, emperor of
Germany in the very
Hall of Mirrors of the castle, in an attempt to take revenge for the conquests of Louis XIV two centuries earlier. Then in March of the same year, following the insurrection of the
Paris Commune, the
French Third Republic government under
Thiers relocated to Versailles, and from there directed the military suppression of the insurrection. Restoration of a monarchy almost occurred in 1873, with parliament offering the crown to
Henri, comte de Chambord, but his refusal to accept the
tricolour flag that had been adopted during the Revolution made the restoration of the monarchy impossible for the time being. Versailles became again the political centre of France, full of buzz and rumours, with its population briefly peaking at 61,686 in 1872, matching the record level of population reached on the eve of the French Revolution 83 years earlier. Eventually, however, left-wing republicans won a string of parliamentary elections, defeating the parties supporting a restoration of the monarchy, and the new majority decided to relocate the government to Paris in November 1879. Versailles then experienced a new population setback (48,324 inhabitants at the 1881 census). After that, Versailles never again functioned as the seat of the capital of France, but the presence of the
French Parliament there in the 1870s left a vast hall, built in one aisle of the palace, which the French Parliament uses when it meets in
Congress to amend the French Constitution, as well as when the
President of France addresses the two chambers of the French Parliament. (Pavillon Dufour) in the spring of 2006 Only in 1911 did Versailles definitely recover its level of population of 1789, with 60,458 inhabitants at the 1911 census. In 1919, at the end of the First World War, Versailles came into the limelight again as the
various treaties ending the war were signed in the castle proper and in the
Grand Trianon. After 1919, as the suburbs of Paris continued to expand, Versailles was absorbed by the urban area of Paris, and the city experienced a strong demographic and economic growth, turning it into a large suburban city of the metropolitan area of Paris. The role of Versailles as an administrative and judicial centre has been reinforced in the 1960s and 1970s, and somehow Versailles has become the main centre of the western suburbs of Paris. In the present times, the centre of the town has kept its very bourgeois atmosphere, while more middle-class neighbourhoods have developed around the train stations and on the outskirts of the city. Versailles is a chic suburb of Paris, well linked to the centre of Paris by several train lines. However, the city is extremely compartmentalized, divided by large avenues inherited from the monarchy, which create the impression of several small cities ignoring each other. Versailles was never an industrial city, even though there are a few chemical and food-processing plants. Essentially, Versailles is a place of services, such as public administration, tourism,
business, congresses, and festivals. From 1951 until France's withdrawal from the NATO unified command in 1966, nearby
Rocquencourt functioned as the site for
SHAPE. Versailles is an important military centre, with several units and training schools headquartered at the
Satory military base, which hosted the headquarters of the famed
2nd French Armored Division until 1999, and where a military exhibition is organized annually. ==Culture==