Palace of Versailles almost all of his courtiers. After the death of Maria Theresa of Spain in 1683, Louis XIV undertook the enlargement and remodeling of the royal apartments in the original part of the palace, within the former hunting lodge built by his father. He instructed Mansart to begin the construction of the Royal Chapel of Versailles, which towered over the rest of the palace. Hardouin-Mansart died in 1708 and so the chapel was completed by his assistant Robert de Cotte in 1710. Louis XIV died in 1715, and the young new King, Louis XV, just five years old, and his government
History of the Palace of Versailles XIV's; in a word, it is having given to this magnificent book that is called French history this magnificent binding that is called Versailles" (Victor Hugo). Later, Balzac characterised the effort in less laudatory terms as the “hospital of the glories of France”. The southern wing (Aile du Midi) was given over to the Galerie des Batailles (Hall of Battles), which necessitated the demolition of most of the apartments of the Princes of the Blood who lived in this part of the palace during the Ancien Régime. The Galerie des Batailles was modeled on the Grande Galerie of the Louvre