Palace of Versailles

The Palace of Versailles (French: "Château de Versailles") has been a national museum ("Musée National du Château et des Trianons de Versailles") since 1792.
In 1624, a hunting lodge made of red brick and sandstone was built for King Louis XIII near the hamlet of Versailles, about 20 km south of Paris. His son Louis XIV would expand it into a massive structure within an 800-hectare domain. The first architect was Louis Le Vau. In 1680, under the direction of architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart, the palace was greatly enlarged. The interior was designed by Charles Le Brun. It is one of the largest palaces in the world and is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The Palace of Versailles was known for its opulent court festivities and strict protocol, making it the quintessential symbol of the Ancien Régime.
The furniture mainly consists of a large collection of French furniture in Baroque, Neoclassical, and Empire styles.
The world-famous French gardens of Versailles with their many fountains were designed by landscape architects André Le Nôtre and Count Caraman, who designed the 18th-century gardens of the Petit Trianon.
The dimensions of this garden are enormous, and it features many ponds, fountains, hundreds of sculptures, colonnades, pavilions, flower beds, pleasure gardens, the orangery, a grotto, and a large canal. Versailles is world-renowned for the vast number of functioning fountains, and virtually everything has remained just as it was in the time of the Sun King.

(source: wikipedia)

Sarah De Keyzer