Versailles

The palace at Versailles was built by Louis XIV. It is a huge building with equally impressive gardens, though it had slightly humbler origins than you would suspect. It was originally a hunting lodge, but Louis XIV moved out there in an attempt to move the power out of Paris and away from the nobles.

Moving the palace would have given the general noble population less control over the political system, but because of the separation, also would have given the king more power, which is probably exactly what Louis XIV intended to do. By moving the palace from the overpopulated capital, the king was probably also safer physically in addition to the political safety gained, because during an uprising, the king was not in the center of everyone, and therefore would be far harder to be assassinated by the public.

The building and extensive gardens are also a cultural display. The amount of money that must have been put into the construction of the building and grounds would have assured the public that the king was in control, and the beautiful result would convince them that he was the right leader to follow. The inside of the palace is characterized by gold, which supports Louis XIV's reputation as "The Sun King." This helps show that he probably had a fairly large ego, a fact only reinforced by how he had himself pictured in the murals on the walls on one of his rooms, versus the traditional paintings of gods and goddesses and such.

Reparations on the palace began in 2005, and the French government is putting millions into the project this shows that even though the palace is very old, and does not have as much significance in modern events as it used to, it is still a treasured national monument of France.



I used the Gale Databases, forgot that I can't use Wikipedia and used it for some information, and used this site for the picture.

Versailles

The palace of Versailles was built and used by the French king Louis the XIV. It was a grand palace located away from the capital Paris that not only a beautiful and amazing building, but was also a symbol of a great power shift in France. By moving the home of the king away from the capital, Louis ensured that absolute power remained with the royals. He required that all nobles spend some times at the palace in the Versailles so that none of them would get too much regional power. All governmental functions of the country took place in Paris, so when he moved the royal headquarters out of Paris, he also moved the central power. Note: he also did this because the thought that if he kept all of the nobles close to him they would be less likely to cause danger and revolt elsewhere.

Not only did the creation of the create palace change the political structure of France, but it also change many social routines. When King Louis moved to Versailles, he put many tedious ceremonies having to do with daily rituals into his life. He changed the way people were to act in his court, and even made a ceremony for himself getting up in the morning. Though most of these ceremonies proved to be boring and most unneeded, they were so well executed that the idea of them spread to royal courts all around Europe.