The Palace of Versailles grew out of a modest hunting lodge built for Louis XIII, which his son Louis XIV transformed into an immense royal residence from the 1660s onward. Architects Louis Le Vau and later Jules Hardouin-Mansart, the painter Charles Le Brun and the landscape designer André Le Nôtre created the palace, the Hall of Mirrors and the vast formal gardens. In 1682 the king moved the court and government there, using elaborate ceremony to keep the nobility under his eye. After the French Revolution the palace ceased to be a royal home, and in the nineteenth century it became a museum of French history. The Treaty of Versailles was signed in its Hall of Mirrors in 1919.
Before and after
- 3 May 1660Treaty of Oliva
- 7 June 1660Birth of George I of Great Britain
- 6 August 1660Death of Diego Velázquez
- November 1660Founding of Royal Society of London
- 1661Construction of Palace of Versailles
- 1662The last confirmed sighting of the dodo
- 30 April 1662Birth of Mary II of England
- 19 August 1662Death of Blaise Pascal
- 1664Construction of Nymphenburg Palace
More in Art, literature & culture
- 15th centuryConstruction of Red Square
- 1602Publication of Hamlet
- 1652Origins of Quakers
- c. 1653The Taj Mahal is completed
- from c. 1730s to 1780sRise of Rococo
- 1759Construction of British Museum
The era
This moment belongs to the Early modern world (1500 CE to 1760 CE), voyages, printing and new ideas. You can also browse everything in the 17th century.