Palace of Versailles

Louis XIII built a hunting lodge here in 1623, later replacing it with a small brick-and-stone château. His son Louis XIV transformed it from the 1660s: Louis Le Vau led the first enlargement, and after 1678 Jules Hardouin-Mansart remodelled and greatly extended the palace, adding the Hall of Mirrors, the Orangerie and the Grand Trianon. From May 1682 the court and government were based here permanently, and the palace remained the centre of royal power until October 1789, when a crowd marched from Paris and forced the royal family to return to the capital.

After the Revolution the palace lost its royal role. King Louis-Philippe turned part of it into a museum dedicated to the glories of France, inaugurated in 1837. In June 1919 the treaty ending the First World War was signed in the Hall of Mirrors. The palace and park were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979, and since the 1990s a public body has managed the estate and restored parts of it.

Versailles is a prosperous town in its own right, built around the palace with wide avenues laid out for the court. The Notre-Dame market, a few minutes' walk from the palace, has covered halls and outdoor stalls selling produce, cheese and flowers, and the old Saint-Louis quarter has narrow streets of small shops and cafés. Many Parisians use the park for weekend walks, running and cycling, and the town has a busy calendar of concerts and events linked to the palace.