History of the Palace of Versailles History of the Palace of Versailles The Palace of Versailles is a royal château in Versailles, in the Île-de-France region of France. When the château was built, Versailles was a country village; today, however, it is a suburb of Paris, some 20 kilometres southwest of the French capital. The court of Versailles was the centre of political power in France from 1682, when Louis XIV moved from Paris, until the royal family was forced to return to the capital in October 1789 after the beginning of the French Revolution. Versailles is therefore famous not only as a building, but as
History of the Palace of Versailles but was never finished due to the king's death. Significant among Louis XV's contributions to Versailles were the "petit appartement du roi"; the "appartements de Mesdames", the "appartement du dauphin", the "appartement de la dauphine" on the ground floor; and the two private apartments of Louis XV – "petit appartement du roi au deuxième étage" (later transformed into the "appartement de Madame du Barry") and the "petit appartement du roi au troisième étage" – on the second and third floors of the palace. The crowning achievements of Louis XV's reign were the construction of the Opéra and the Petit Trianon.