France has two of the most famous "palaces", the Louvre and versailles, the two former royal palaces are now one of the "four major museums in the world" and the latter one of the "five major palaces in the world".
The Palace of Versailles, which was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1979, has been a symbol of power for the supreme ruler of the Kingdom of France for a century, and it is magnificent, radiant and radiant, and everywhere embodies the most luxurious artistic feast. But at the same time, it also shows the social symbol of corruption and injustice at that time. Romantic and depraved, brilliant and absurd, the Bourbon dynasty flourished from here, and also from here to its demise. The Palace of Versailles is not only a royal palace, but also a vivid French history textbook.
At the entrance to the court of honor is the bronze statue of Louis XIV, the builder of the Palace of Versailles, riding a horse in high heels and wig.
In 1661, the 23-year-old King Louis XIV of France ordered the construction of a brand new palace in the rural town of Versailles. His ministers were astonished, for since the Louvre became a royal palace, successive emperors have lived here and expanded for it. Louis's new site is 20 kilometers away and is a swamp where mosquitoes breed.
Louis, who had just taken over the government, did this because of the riots he experienced as a child, and the shadow of his two escapes to Paris made him determined to establish a complete monarchical totalitarian system, with absolute authority. And this first step is to show that he has the will and ability to transcend nature and can build a great palace that sensationalizes the world in the impossible place.
There is a saying in France that if you have not visited Versailles, you have not actually been to France. Therefore, in front of versailles, there is always an endless serpentine line, and it is usually lucky to be able to line up at the entrance in an hour.
Once the hunting palace of Louis XIV's father, Louis XIII, it had only 26 rooms for storage and arsenals, as well as temporary shelters during hunting. Little Louis and his father came here as a child, and he knew how difficult it would be to convert the swamp into a palace, but he preferred to go to tiger mountains.
Louis XIV was so stubborn that, apart from willfulness, of course he had his own plans. In order to establish a monarchical system, it was necessary to weaken the power of the nobility, and one of Louis's strategies was to create an atmosphere of extravagance. Louis XIV built the Palace of Versailles not only to live for himself, he wanted to gather all the princes, nobles and ministers here and live with him. In this way, he can keep abreast of the movements of everything at any time, and he works more than eight hours a day.
In addition to his hard work, he tried to entertain, hosting lavish balls, feasts and celebrations every day, and Louis XIV wanted the nobles to indulge in wine and compete with each other to win their favor, without time to deal with local problems, so that they gradually lost their power. Outside this gilded gate, the people bore the heavy taxes and fees, while the rich princes and nobles enjoyed their success.
In order to accommodate so many people, Louis XIV had to build the palace large enough and have enough rooms. He employed more than 30,000 architects and workers, more than 6,000 horses to carry stone, and in order to ensure that the materials were sufficient, he even ordered a nationwide ban on the use of stone for other projects for 10 years. After nearly half a century of construction, the Louvre spent 70 million livres, or about 1.05 billion euros (8 billion yuan), to create a large complex of palaces, gardens, fountains, artificial lakes, statues, and Tibetan paintings that now contain 2,300 rooms.
The buildings on the north and south sides of the court were for the ministers to live in, and now the south wing is a ticket office, and the tourists queuing up to buy tickets are like the ministers who were crowded in to move in. Even though the scale of the place is already very large, for the huge princes and nobles and government agencies, the rooms are still more monks and less porridge, so many absurd and ironic things have happened.
After more than an hour of queuing, after entering the gate is the Imperial Family Garden, and the deepest part of the west side is the main hall, where the king lives and the famous Hall of Mirrors, and in front of the main hall is a relatively small marble courtyard.
The Palace of Versailles is obviously much more splendid than the Louvre, and all the gold seen is really gilded, but this is also the best interpretation of "the gold and jade are lost outside". In the heyday of versailles, the number of people living in the palace reached 36,000, not only the housing shortage, but also the hygiene, heating, laundry, cleaning are huge problems. In the ornate Palace of Versailles, many rooms did not even have bathrooms, and the prince had to defecate in the fireplace of the bedroom, let alone take a bath. People jokingly called the rooms of versailles "gilded cages".
And since the establishment of the Bourbon Dynasty by Henry IV, the French nation has become a famous water-fearing people, who believe that water is harmful to the body, so even the king rarely bathes in his life, and the smell of the body can be imagined. So this is also the biggest reason why perfume was invented by the French and sought after by women.
Even if there was perfume, every once in a while the stench of Versailles accumulated so that even the perfume could not be covered, at that time, the king would go to Fontainebleau or the Palace of Marly, etc., and then come back after the smell of Versailles had dissipated.
According to the prescribed tour route, there was a Chinese explanation plane in the north wing, and walked along with the surging crowd to watch. In 1674, the architect Monsa took over the work of the Palace of Versailles from the deceased original designer LeVoux, adding north and south wings on both sides of the nave.
However, the current Palace of Versailles was restored in 1833 by King Louis Philippe of Orléans after being looted during the French Revolution. Philippe not only restored the Palace of Versailles, but also built the Arc de Triomphe, which Napoleon had never built, and he made a great contribution to the preservation of France's heritage.
The first thing to be seen in the north wing is the Royal Chapel, which occupies two floors. Under the huge pipe organ is a relief of a golden angel guarding King David, who is playing the harp. The head-pounding dome frescoes are french painters Antoine Coyppell and Charles Foss, "The Eternal Father in the Halo Promises God's Redemption to Mankind" and "The Resurrection of Christ".
This chapel has witnessed many royal baptisms and weddings, including the wedding of King Louis XVI of France and Queen Marie Antoinette, who was later sent to the guillotine.
Today, the main hall has 17 halls open, and the first thing to see is the magnificent Hercules Hall. The hall had not yet been built at the time of Louis XIV, and Louis XV completed it and used it as a ballroom for the princes and nobles. When Louis XVI came to power, it was changed to the Diplomatic Conference Hall.
Hercules is the God of Hercules in ancient Roman mythology, so the most magnificent painting in hercules hall is the "Ode to Hercules" on the ceiling, which was completed by the French painter François Le Mouirne in 5 years. With 142 figures, it was the largest oil painting in Europe at the time.
Le Mouirne, a French painter born in 1688, was one of the founders of French rococo art. He went to Italy at the age of 35 to study and was deeply influenced by Italian court painting. At the age of 48, after successfully completing this zenith painting, he was appointed chief court painter by King Louis XV. But severe depression coupled with the death of his wife did not take long for the chief court painter to commit suicide.
The largest painting under the ceiling is Italian painter Paulo Veronese's Feast at Simon's House. Paul was one of Titian's two great disciples, and all three of them were also known as the three masters of the Sixteenth-century Venetian School of Italian Painting, and Paul's most famous work was The Wedding of Ghana.
Simon's Feast was not painted by Paul for versailles, but by the Friars of the Virgin Mary in Venice in 1570. In 1664, in order to unite France against Turkey, the Doge of Venice gave it to Louis XIV.
Opposite Simon's Feast is Lipega by the Well by another of Titian's great disciples, Tintoretto.
Behind the Hall of Hercules is the Hall of Harvest, which Louis XIV used to collect rare treasures. Anyone who came to see the king passed through here, and Louis showed off his authority by showing off his collection. The colorful Harvest Hall is topped by the dreamlike French painter Antoine Hoarthur's The Royal Magnificence, created in 1678-1683.
On either side of the door of the Harvest Hall are portraits of louis XIV's descendants, and on the left are louis XIV's eldest son, the crown prince Louis the Great, but his father lived longer than him. On the right is Louis XIV's grandson, louis the Great's second son, born philip V at versailles, who later succeeded the Spanish king, which led to wars between France and many other European countries. But none of this was his intention, but his grandfather's dominance.
The victory in the Franco-Dutch War of 1678 caused Louis XIV to shake Western Europe and give rise to the name of "Sun King". But his fame and success have also made many enemies, France and Spain, England, Sweden war, the cost is huge, the war is protracted, and many gold and silver objects in the Palace of Versailles have to be melted to pay for the army. Unable to win the war, Louis had to sign the Treaty of Riswick, which was unfavorable to France, ceding land to the enemy.
However, through the plundering of overseas colonies, France also accumulated a lot of wealth, promoted economic development, and transformed from an agrarian country into an industrial power in Eurasia, and French became the lingua franca of european diplomacy and high society at that time.
After four years of peace, a new crisis emerged. After his death, the King of Spain, without heirs, passed the throne to his sister's grandson. His sister was Maria, queen of Louis XIV, which means that her heir was Philip V, the grandson of Louis XIV. If Louis's Bourbon dynasty accepted, the other European monarchs would have stopped him because of a broken balance of power, but if he refused, Spain's lands would be handed over to France's rival Austria. Louis, whose quest for power was infinite, of course accepted the throne, but thus began a war that lasted for the longest time during his reign, which lasted 12 years and nearly destroyed France.
After the Harvest Hall is the Venus Hall, also known as the Venus Hall, which in ancient Roman mythology represented Venus, the goddess of love and beauty. In the alcove of the hall stands the statue of Louis XIV by the French sculptor Jean Wallin, but louis was not yet wearing high heels.
Louis grew up in an age of theatrical mania, he loved to dance and became a skilled dancer, he did not mind performing in front of the princes and nobles, he liked to be the focus of everyone. He has blonde hair and a handsome face, but unfortunately he is a short man. So Louis, who demanded perfection, invented high heels and put on a wig to look taller. He prides himself on the Apollo of the ancient Roman gods who represented the sun, because the sun symbolizes supremacy and omnipotence.
The ceiling of the Venus Hall is really golden, it was still done by Antoine Hoarthur, who painted the ceiling of the Harvest Hall, and it was the first painting of Venus exerting divinity and power in her kingdom. In the painting, The Graces, the three goddesses of femininity, elegance and beauty, are about to put on a crown of flowers for Venus in the middle, and Venus's son Cupid and other angels, as well as the people on the ground, are watching them.
The arches on the roof contain four paintings depicting ancient heroes, which also symbolize the great deeds of Louis XIV. This painting "Augustus Driving a Carriage to a Race" alludes to Louis XIV's cavalry competition in 1662.
Further on is the Luna Hall, also known as the Diana Hall, where in ancient Roman mythology the Moon Goddess was Diana and the twin sister of the sun god Apollo. In the alcove of the hall is the 1665 work of the famous Italian sculptor João Lorenzo Bernini, "Bust of Louis XIV".
The sculptor had many large masterpieces in Rome, including the Fountain of the Four Rivers in Piazza Navona, and the square of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. The Pope stretched out two hands and embraced the 284 Toscara-like pillars of the faithful, making it unforgettable for all who climbed the church to look down. However, Bernini did not receive the attention of Louis XIV when he was in France, so he returned to Italy after carving the bust.
The frescoes at the top of the hall are mostly related to Diana, the goddess of the moon, and on the four corners are the three lily badges symbolizing King Louis XIV.
During the time of Louis XIV, it was also known as the "Applause Hall". Because whenever a dinner party is held, this hall becomes a billiard room. Around the table were elaborately dressed female relatives, who would applaud every time the king fired a good ball, and there was always applause in the hall. Not only watching Louis XIV play, but the king dressed in the morning and ate in the evening became something that the nobles competed for admiration, and flattering the king became the only thing the princes and nobles did every day.
The reason why many of the rooms in versailles are named planets and moons is because the main hall of the palace is called the Apollo Hall, that is, the "Sun King" hall that Louis XIV compared himself to, and the king's throne is located here. This is the most luxurious of the entire Palace of Versailles except for the Hall of Mirrors, and every place is dazzling. The columns and walls are brass and gilded at all four corners, the ceilings are gilded reliefs, and even the walls are dark red gold and silver wire trimmed with velvet.
However, the "Sun King" will eventually become thinner and thinner, and Louis will live longer than many of his descendants, but this also makes him have to suffer the double blow of the death of his descendants and the decline of the country. After the death of Louis XIV, the 5-year-old great-grandson Louis XV succeeded to the throne. France's perennial wars have left the people with all their hopes pinned on this young child, but Louis XV, born in the Palace of Versailles, as he grew older, not only inherited the extravagance and lustfulness of his great-grandfather, but even more.
When versailles were filled with louis xvyvies, Louis began to declare war on France's old rivals, Britain and Austria, and although he once won Corsica and Lorraine, he lost India, Canada, and the huge French colonies on the west bank of the Mississippi River after the Seven Years' War with Britain.
The Treaty of Paris, signed in 1763, was one of the most humiliating events of the French monarchy, marking the loss of the New World. So the lingua franca of the world today is English, not French, and that's part of the reason.
With the death of Louis XV's most trusted lover, the son who succeeded to the throne, and the queen, his spirit deteriorated. Finally, he wanted to maintain the absolute authority of the monarchy through the grand wedding of his grandson Louis XVI, so he began to continue the construction of the opera house that his great-grandfather had not repaired at versailles. In the end, Louis XV died of smallpox, and when the king was announced, no one cared, and even the whole country celebrated.
In 1775, Louis XVI and the queen were crowned at versailles, and the people pinned their hopes on the new king, but Louis XVI, who had a weak character, was doomed to a tragic life, and he was powerless to save the dynasty that was on the verge of disintegration. Only 14 years later, after the angry people of Paris stormed the Bastille and stormed the Palace of Versailles, louis XVI's family was taken away from where they had lived. Eventually, at the age of 38, Louis XVI collapsed on the guillotine now called the Place de la Concorde, becoming the only king in French history to be executed.
The Hall of Mirrors, the largest and most luxurious hall in Versailles, is in the very center of Versailles. The 17 large floor-to-ceiling windows with round arches face the garden, and opposite the windows are 17 arched mirrors as large as the floor-to-ceiling windows. Do not underestimate these mirrors, 17th century mirrors are very expensive things, can reflect the mirror of people without deformation only Venice can do, Louis XIV demanded that it must be made of Venetian craftsmanship mirrors, like craftsmen had to go to Venice to steal technology.
After six years of construction, the Hall of Mirrors was completed in 1684. Louis XIV was also shocked when he first saw it, and the light of the mirrors and hundreds of candles in the hall made it noble and magnificent, and his dream of building all the palaces in the world came true. So whenever he received foreign missions, royal weddings, and big balls, he wanted to make everyone in his palace stunned and convinced.
Louis XV's parents also held a grand wedding in the Hall of Mirrors, and the two were very affectionate, but unfortunately, Louis XV contracted measles and died when he was twelve.
On the vault of the Large Rectangular Hall of Mirrors is the glorious history of Louis XIV in the middle of the pro-pro-government period depicted by Charles Le Brun, that is, from 1661 to the signing of the Treaty of Nijmegen. Although the great image and super popularity he personally created were lost in his later years, it is undeniable that in the first eighteen years, France's military strength has always been the first in Western Europe, which napoleon could not do later, and this palace of his dreams is admired by people all over the world today.
Le Brun was called "the greatest artist of the epoch in France" by Louis XIV because he cleverly expressed the achievements of Louis XIV in the form of ancient Roman mythology, and Louis became one with Apollo in many of his paintings.
The Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, like Notre Dame on the Île de la Cité, represented the highest sphere of French politics at the time, and naturally witnessed many historic moments, including humiliation from other countries.
Due to France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, on 18 January 1871, King William I of Prussia was crowned Emperor of the German Empire in the Hall of Mirrors. However, the First World War was a game in which France moved back, and the Treaty of Versailles, which marked the end of the First World War, was also signed in the Hall of Mirrors, but France also paid a huge price in the war.
Louis XIV's endless quest for glory and grandeur is also reflected in the 100-hectare garden of the Palace of Versailles, which not only has green flower beds, statue fountains, but also a 1.6-kilometer cross-shaped artificial Canal. However, Louis XIV, who was in a hurry, also used the method of pulling seedlings to promote growth, and the trees were planted here by adult trees pulled out of other places in France.
Trees can be moved, but the lack of living water in Versailles is difficult to change. The hundreds of fountains built by Lenotel could not really be used at all, and it was only when the king was walking in the garden that the gardener opened the water valve when he was approaching the fountain, let the fountain spray water, and closed it when he was gone.
Versailles historian William Richey Newton wrote in his book Behind the Gate that when Louis XIV hosted a banquet, each person had 8 courses of broth, 10 first plates, 4 courses of barbecue, 8 courses of Chinese food, 2 salads, 4 courses of fruit and 6 desserts. Versailles is a great deal of waste at all times. But the life of the royal family is not superficially glamorous, in addition to the lack of toilets we mentioned earlier, the laundry place is also very tense, the king's shirts and underwear are even cleaned in the drinking tank of the stables, and the water pollution problem is serious.
After Louis XVI was taken from here, the Palace of Versailles was also looted several times, furniture, frescoes, tapestries and other items were looted, and doors and windows were smashed. Louis Philippe and later donors, as well as the French government, gradually restored it to what we see it today. Now, the French government occasionally uses the Hall of Mirrors to welcome foreign heads of state.
With the passage of time, the Palace of Versailles has changed from a former royal palace to an artistic hall that records the imprint of history, and no one can stop the wheel of history, but the Palace of Versailles has undoubtedly become a witness and monument of history.
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