Versailles

The Palace of Versailles is an extravagant and colossal building that used to be the royal residence of King Louis XIV and the official residence of the court of France. It was formerly a hunting lodge until it went through numerous building campaigns by Louis XIV and changed into a grand palace. The palace was basically built to exaggerate the absolute power and wealth of Louis XIV. Politically, he was able to keep better track of his nobles, since he kept them in the palace and thus could effectively watch over them so that their regional power over their villages would not overpower his. Furthermore he successfully moved the innermost power away from Paris, where he could be the axis of everything. Versailles was also originally a county village centered around a small castle. Louis XIV had turned to the small hunting lodge of Versailles to function as a place of his personal absolute rule. The small village was first destroyed in order to make room for more buildings, and the place was nothing else but the huge palace itself. Socially, more and more people came toward the palace to live closer to the political power. Consequently, the once small village gradually became a vast city with nearly 30,000 inhabitants. Economically, the palace cost approximately 60% of France’s total revenue. The small lodge became a royal and overstated dwelling surrounded by stylized English and French gardens that could house more than 5000 people. This shows how much power the king had then since he put more than half the country’s wealth to finish the palace.