Electricity Versailles - France

The Unesco Scientific, Educational and Cultural Organization has recognized the Palace of Versailles in France as a World Cultural Heritage in 1979.

Palace of Versailles - World cultural heritage in France

Versailles Palace is about 20 km southwest of Paris. The palace is a combination of extremely massive and splendid architectural works located on an area of ​​about 67,000 m2.

The Palace of Versailles is considered a symbol of the power of French feudal dynasties. Versailles is famous not only because it is a beautiful architecture and its scale but also because the palace is a place to mark the news of French art in the 17th and 18th centuries. Standard rules of classicalism such as symmetry of buildings, multi-column corridors, art works inspired by ancient legends and art, combined with Baroque art.

When Louis 13 died in 1643, Louis 14 was only 5 years old, the residence of the French king placed in the Louvre and Saint-Germain-en-Laye palaces. But when married in 1660, Louis 14 moved the palace to Versailles, initially built by his father in 1623 as a guesthouse to hunt but later expanded into a castle.

Over 50 years of reign of Louis 14, Versailles combined or received the most sophisticated work of French painters and architects and became the largest and most beautiful palace in Europe, the legendary combination Classic facade virtual style influenced by Italian Baroque art separate from the beautiful Baroque interior with the park so rich that today this style is known as the French Classical school . The palace and location must take advantage of the prestige of the royal places in the 18th century Europe.

The Diamond Yard is the last vestiges of Le Roy's original castle built for King Louis 13 to be painted by Le Vau.

Louis 15 and 16 continue to supplement in the palace - decorating and completing the theme of art style from the Renaissance (Louis 13) and the French classical school (Louis 14) to Rococo (Louis 15), next to is New Classical (Louis 16). After the revolution, Napoleon I added insignificantly before Louis-Philippe turned the palace into a Museum of France's Glories. The construction in the final shape is very massive, with over 700 rooms, floor area of ​​51,000m2 and not less than 65 stairs.

Designer

Construction of the Versailles power of Louis 14 began in 1661. The king chose Louis Le Vau , Charles Lebrun, and landscape designer André Le Nore. The previous year, the king's celebration was held at the new castle of French Finance Minister Fouquet in the Vaux le Vicomte, near Melun. Louis 14 was impressed by the magnificent castle and lovely park as well as always remembering the pride of the owner of the castle - the man he was willing to imprison - discussing with the castle designers to open wide place in Versailles is quite modest.

Le Vau (1612 - 1670) came from a family of architects, builders, designers, known as the Royal Architect in 1654. First he redesigned the Versailles electricity of Philibert Le Roy under Louis 13, before adding an inspired Italian Baroque extension, centered around the original work on all three sides and a strip of land by creating steps. After Le Vau died, the work of the public - now the Government Guest House - was completed by his assistant Francois d'Orbay.

Jules Hardouin (1646 - 1708), his grandson and architect Francois Mansart succeeded Le Vau as a Royal Architect, following the decision of Louis 14 in 1682 to build a yard in Versailles, Add some important details to the palace - increase the floor area by 5 times. Among the most famous achievements in Versailles by Hardouin-Mansart is the magnificent Glass Room by inserting into a recessive façade designed by Le Vau, and a 13m tall orange garden, with the massive wall of the garden keeping. for temperatures almost constant all year round. Near the end of his life, Hardouin-Mansart designed an ornate Royal Chapel, completed by 1710 by his brother-in-law, Robert de Cotte.

The time of Louis 15 reigns witnessed the elegant decoration of Rococo ( the original term alludes to the decoration of Italian shells and beads ) in place of the existing Baroque art, and construction of seclusion for the king a vast park - Trianon palace. In 1770, under the reign of King Louis 16, Jacques-Ange Gabriel added an important residence to the palace, the Opéra theater in the style of a beautiful New Classical wooden style with 700-1000 seats, but it was His most beautiful neoclassical style is Petit Trianon (1768).

Decorate

Charles Lebrun (1619 - 1690) apprenticed at artists Francois Vouet and then Nicolas Poussin, a resident of Rome. Louis 14 appreciated Lebrun's classic frescoes and paintings, and in 1661 he suggested to the painter to supervise every decorative detail of the Versailles, appointing him as a Royal Artist in 1662.

Like the life of Louis 14 - and the castle all over the world, the rooms in the palace are large, the furniture of Lebrun is extremely beautiful, every effort is impressive. The quintessential nature of Baroque art lies in its gentle and decorative use to create telepathy and endless space, the wall architecture disappears when visitors feel like being dragged into. The next rooms until attracted to look up at the mural on the ceiling. The astrological theme with mythology always reminds visitors to associate the king with the god of the sun Apollo, Nam Than Light and life.

The abundance of precious materials and excellent workmanship recruited throughout Europe is surprisingly calculated. One of the most beautiful spaces in the world, Hardouin-Mansart's magnificent beautiful Glass Room overlooks the park, combining the use of glass for the first time on a large scale ( 17 high-panel glass panels reflecting the same windows). self, full height on the opposite side ), while the 30 frescoes of Le Brun's ceiling depict the achievements of King Louis 14.

The Versailles Palace, thanks in large part to the abundance of riches in the original architecture, decoration and furniture, and the art of the successors of the successors, have a clear awareness. King Louis-Philippe ordered more than 3,000 paintings to fill the missing parts of French history from the Middle Ages to the 1830s ( but none of these depicts failure ).

View

Le Notre's park looks simple, but when you visit, you will find his mastery with large-scale components and sophisticated details. A complex network of many perspectives is developing, changing at a scale and scale, and too many architectural components gradually unfold for visitors to realize the development in the park. The conspicuous simple organization of the Versailles power on a large and rich scale creates amazing landscapes and details. Louis 13 was so pleased with the result that he composed the instructions himself, drawing a route to help visitors discover his details.

Hardouin-Mansart's 30-year separation of two great works: one of the most beautiful rooms in the spacious Glass Room decorated by Lebrun (1678) and the Royal Chapel (1710)

Flower beds - geometric layouts with low hedges, flowers and lawns are intimately attached to the castle and designed to be seen from the peak from within, unobstructed eye views. The large channel used for travel purposes, is also an impressive illustration of the Baroque technique that attracts the audience's perception of the right spindle running to the horizon.

However, once in the park, the main axis became an interesting link to many reservoirs, rivers and statues of France and the trees were trimmed in geometric form, emphasized by nozzles and auxiliary shafts. In turn, the auxiliary axes leading to the nozzles bring the characteristics of each season as well as unexpected bushes or flowers (currently only 9 out of 14 at first), hidden in the surrounding forest. .

Actual data:

3 is the number of palaces in the overall architecture of the Palace of Versailles. These palaces include Versailles, Grand Trianon and Petit Trianon. In total, this complex has 700 rooms, 2,513 windows, 352 chimneys, 67 stairs, 483 mirrors and tile roof area up to 13 hectares. The public can visit in an area of ​​up to 67,121m2.

17 is the number of mirrors covering the famous Mirror Room . It is the main gallery of the castle with a length of 73m and is currently one of the best known rooms in the world. The Mirror Room was built in 1678 and at the time, mirrors were expensive and difficult to make.

55 is the number of different large and small lakes in the Palace of Versailles. The largest is the Grand Canal Lake, 23 hectares wide and containing 500,000m3 of water. Of course, it is impossible not to mention 600 beautifully decorated fountains and 35km of canals running around this castle.

800 hectares is the park area of ​​the castle of Versailles. To visit the whole area, you have to travel many days, in one day you can only visit the main points. Among 800 hectares there are 300 hectares of forest, 2 French landscape gardens including 1 reserved area Particularly for the ancient Queen, it was shaped like a small village. The park itself has 20km of fence, 42km of gravel trail and 372 decorative statues.

900 is the number of staff managing and operating the castle. Of these, 400 are security guards, they are responsible for "managing" 3 million people visiting the castle and 7 million people visiting the park area every year. Of the total number of visitors, up to 70% are foreigners who come to admire the pride of France.

18,000 m2 is the area of ​​the museum area inside the Palace of Versailles. In the 19th century, the Museum of French History was established and became the world's largest historical museum at the time. In the museum's collection, there are 6,123 paintings, 1,500 sketches, 15,034 sculptures and 2,102 sculptures.

100,000,000 (livre) is the minimum amount to complete this work during the reign of King Louis XIV, in monetary terms at that time the livre. The cost of raising 12 people a day at that time lost about 14 livre. Of course, a big project like Versailles also requires a huge amount of labor that peaks at 36,000 people per year.

The most impressive element in the park is perhaps the presence and treatment of water - pumped from the Seine in Marly. The large channel occupies 23 hectares and other reservoirs, like glass in the castle's glass room facing the park, turning the sky into a constantly changing decorative element, adding Baroque illusions to an endless space. . The nozzle once again emphasized the combination of the Sun King with the God of the Sun in Greek mythology: two main nozzles relate to the Sun's path through the sky - indicating the characteristics of the Apollo god at West and god Leto, Apollo's mother in the East.

Le Nôtre's large, seemingly simple Baroque-style axis shows a series of endless landscapes, architectural components and interesting details.

In Versailles electricity used with all shapes of dynamics - vertical water magic, geometric arches, waterfalls - all the senses enjoy the way a sculpture inside, No details, never got. Visitors to "Grands Eaux" - then the original 35km pipeline system has up to 50 nozzles - to help everyone who has experienced a truly wonderful moment, not available in another park.

Versailles today

Today, Versailles electricity is still in use, such as the National Museum and Government Guest House, as well as the meeting point of major events such as the signing of the treaty after the First World War, the Prime Minister's Conference. Europe and the French bicameral meeting when discussing constitutional amendments. Although later rulers changed, Versailles electricity is still the work of Louis 14's talented designers and decorators.