Palace of Versailles
palace in Versailles, France and location of the Museum of the History of France
The Palace of Versailles (French: Château de Versailles) is a château and historic monument in Versailles in the Yvelines department of France, southwest of Paris. It served as the principal residence of the French kings Louis XIV, Louis XV, and Louis XVI.
The king, the court, and the royal government lived there permanently from 6 May 1682 until 6 October 1789, except during the Regency years (1715–1723). Conceived by Louis XIV to glorify the French monarchy, the palace became the most important architectural project of his reign and is considered one of the masterpieces of French classical architecture. It exerted major influence across Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries in architecture and the decorative arts.
The palace forms a vast and complex ensemble of courtyards and buildings designed to maintain architectural harmony. It covers about 63,154 square metres and contains roughly 2,300 rooms, around 1,000 of which belong to the National Museum of the History of France housed in the Palace and the Trianons.
The park of the Palace of Versailles covers 815 hectares today, compared with more than 8,000 hectares before the French Revolution. Of this area, 93 hectares are formal gardens. The estate includes numerous features, such as the Petit Trianon and Grand Trianon—later used by Napoleon I, Louis XVIII, Charles X, Louis Philippe I, and Napoleon III—as well as the Hameau de la Reine, the Grand and Petit Canal, a former menagerie, the Orangerie, and the Pièce d'Eau des Suisses. As one of the most visited sites in Europe, the estate is central to ongoing discussions about managing overtourism.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Palace of Versailles” as palace in Versailles, France and location of the Museum of the History of France. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as palace in Versailles, France and location of the Museum of the History of France. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2946. VIAF identifies the subject as 127977992. The Library of Congress control number is sh85022755. Authority coordinates are 48.805, 2.120. 2 of 7 selected statements include explicit references; 4 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1682, 1789, 1715 and 1723.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Palace of Versailles”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Palace of Versailles primary sources, Palace of Versailles archive and Palace research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Palace of Versailles”?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Palace of Versailles” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.