By Alexa Martínez
The Palace of Versailles is so far the favorite destination for the tourists in France and it’s not for nothing, it was the residence of many kings and has amazing architecture, today we will take a walk to find out six secrets of this architectural wonder.
Home of figures like Marie Antoinette and Louis XIII, this palace was at first a hunting lodge where the “Sun King” went with his father, later he wanted to get away from her mother and moved into this swampy area that ended up being a wonderful palace.
In 1623 the first palace was built to welcome the king when he was up to haunt, in 1631 it was extended with French gardens. Finally, in 1682 King Louis XIV moved the court and the French government to the palace that could have up to five thousand guests. Therefore, we shouldn’t be surprised about the secrets that it hides.
The fragrance of the gardens was so intense that made visitors ill
The gardens of Versailles are among the largest and most spectacular in the world, with 372 statues, 55 decorative elements, 600 fountains, and more than 32 kilometers of pipelines. Even though this eccentricity is what makes it unique, in the XVII century the flowers gave off an intense fragrance that made the guests avoid visiting it.
Mirror masters that worked in the Hall of Mirrors were stolen
The Hall of Mirrors is one of the most luxurious rooms in Versailles with 357 mirrors, something that at the time was outrageous mainly because it was one of the most expensive materials of the century. Even though Venetia had a monopoly on the manufacture of mirrors, France figured out the way to attract the artisans of this city and create this marvelous room.
The kitchen was far away from the dining room, so the meals arrived cold
One of the architectural flaws of the palace was without a doubt this one. They didn’t address the distance between the kitchen and the dining room, and when banquets were held with more than five thousand guests it was necessary to have hundreds of servants ready to serve quickly and correctly. Nevertheless, the most affected by this was king, Louis XV who always was the last one, so he chose to build private kitchens in his quarters.
The secret hideaway of Marie Antoinette
‘Petit Trianon’ the personal retirement of Marie Antoinette included a theatre, a vegetable patch, and a farm to produce dairy products. This place also harbored the ‘Temple of Love’, an artificial island that has a copy of ‘Cupid fashioning a Bow out of the Club of Hercules’. Nearby you’ll find a private grotto, like a little cave with much vegetation, a bed of moss, and two entries that were used as a romantic secret hideaway.
The King’s Animals
This used to be the house of all kinds of wild animals and birds, so the king ordered Louis le Vau to build an ornamented house from which the animals could be seen from the balcony of the central pavilion of The Menagerie, many years later, they started calling this ‘zoos’.
The Royal Fence was destroyed during the French Revolution
Seeing all the luxury of the palace, it’s not surprising that the people, who were poor and starving, would destroy it without a doubt. They hated the opulent way of living that Marie Antoinette had. In 1789, the French revolutionary government ordered the destruction of the royal fence that was gold-plated.
Images: Pixabay, Shutterstock and Chateau Versailles
