Palace of Versailles

The Palace of Versailles was the center for court in France in the late 1600s through the late 1700s. Politically, the Palace of Versailles was an attempt to move the court away from Paris. The Palace of Versailles is where court was held, although the official capital of France was still Paris. Socially, the court’s change in venue translated to a desire to separate itself from the rest of the capital and the capital’s common people. I think part of the reason why it moved was because rulers wanted to set a clear line between them and the rest of the country’s social statuses. Economically, the palace must have cost huge amounts of money. The palace is huge and ridiculously grand, so it must have made an impact on France’s economy to build it. Mountainous amounts of money were wasted in order for France to make itself a palace that flaunts the wealth and power of the court. This and the Taj Mahal are proof that there should be limits to a single person’s economic or political power, because corruption and insane desires corrupt people too easily. Scientifically it must have been some sort of achievement simply to make a building that was so vast with gardens that extend beyond even that. This could also be seen as a cultural monument because it showcases a lot of incredible French art and architecture.

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The Palace of Versailles

The Palace of Versailles was a small lodge that was expanded upon and created into an enormous palace at the asking of Louis XIV. The palace was where king Louis the XIV ruled from according to Lorri Brown; writer for History Magazine. To see her post go here. The palace at Versailles is significant because it is a monument to the power and wealth of King Louis the XIV. The social aspect of the palace is that since king Louis was ruling and living form there, he attempted to take power away from nobility and distance himself from France's population. The political aspect of the palace is that it is where the government was concentrated and where King XIV ruled from, also he only made it mandatory that politicians and influential nobles stayed at the palace to ensure that they did not have too much regional power over their villages, so that King Louis XIV would be the center of power. The economic aspect of the palace was that it was very costly to renovate the hunting lodge into the spectacle that it became; the gold plated rooms must have cost a large sum. The cultural aspect of the Palace at Versailles is that the palace demonstrated a common belief in France that its rulers were corrupt and vile; eventually the majority of the population could not accept this anymore and they started the French Revolution.