Reading Response 9

Chateau de Versailles

The building of this began in 1661, but went through several phases and the site of it was an old hunting lodge.  The redesign of this into a grand palace by Louis Le Vau and Jules Hardouin-Mansart.
Some Other Facts:
-  Andre Le Notre began work on the gardens and fountains
-  a new building was wrapped around the old one
-  has a series of forecourts with a U around a central court
-  the courts are located on a hill
-  proclaimed the royal capital by the king
-  has three avenues
-  20 kilometers southwest of Paris
-  central and northern avenues lead to Paris
-  carriages passed through the avenues to the first gate
-  the ground floor contained apartments
-  apartments were for royal guards and administrators
-  stairway led to principal reception rooms
-  the king lived in those rooms
-  a long hall of mirrors faced a gardens to the west
-  King's Building Office designed, planned, and executed the building
-  construction was never halted after the architect died
-  very well set up and organized building
-  gardens were laid out on a grid and aligned with the palace
-  the garden was used to celebration
-  this included horsemanship events, banquets, plays, music and fireworks
-  Jean-Baptist Tuby's Basin of Apollo was added on the western end

The interesting thing to me about the Chateau de Versailles is that when our class broke up into groups a few weeks ago to talk about a word, sentence, and phrase, this is one of the buildings that the group I was in chose to discuss.

The above images are of the exterior of the building and also of the interior features.  The interior includes the ceiling details and the lighting. The exterior shows the structure of the building and the details of it.