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Versailles (French pronunciation: [vɛʁsɑj] ) is a commune in the department of the Yvelines, Île-de-France, known worldwide for the Château de Versailles and the gardens of Versailles, designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Located in the western suburbs of the French capital, 17.1 km (10.6 mi) from the centre of Paris, Versailles is a wealthy suburb of Paris with a service-based economy and is a major tourist destination. According to the 2017 census, the population of the city is 85,862 inhabitants, down from a peak of 94,145 in 1975.
Versailles | |
|---|---|
Prefecture and commune | |
 From top left to bottom right: Le Soir ("The Evening" in the gardens of Versailles); rue des Deux-Portes; the Château de Versailles taken from the gardens; Versailles Cathedral; equestrian statue of Louis XIV, place d'Armes, in front of the Château; Church of Notre-Dame, Versailles, parish church of the Château; the bassin d'Apollon in the gardens of Versailles; la salle du Jeu de paume (where the Tennis Court Oath was signed); the Musée Lambinet (municipal museum of Versailles); the Temple de l'Amour ("Temple of Love", garden of the Petit Trianon) | |
 Coat of arms | |
 Location (in red) within Paris inner and outer suburbs | |
Location of Versailles  | |
  Versailles  Versailles | |
| Coordinates: 48°48′18″N 2°08′06″E / 48.8050°N 2.1350°E | |
| Country | France |
| Region | Île-de-France |
| Department | Yvelines |
| Arrondissement | Versailles |
| Canton | Versailles-1 and 2 |
| Intercommunality | CA Versailles Grand Parc |
| Government | |
| • Mayor (2020–2026) | François de Mazières (DVD) |
Area 1 | 26.18 km2 (10.11 sq mi) |
| Population (2022) | 83,918 |
| • Density | 3,200/km2 (8,300/sq mi) |
| Demonym | Versaillais |
| Time zone | UTC+01:00 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+02:00 (CEST) |
| INSEE/Postal code | 78646 /78000 |
| Elevation | 103–180 m (338–591 ft) (avg. 132 m or 433 ft) |
| 1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. | |
A new town founded at the will of King Louis XIV, Versailles was the de facto capital of the Kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789, before becoming the cradle of the French Revolution. After having lost its status as a royal city, it became the préfecture (regional capital) of the Seine-et-Oise département in 1790, then of Yvelines in 1968. It is also a Roman Catholic diocese.
Versailles is historically known for numerous treaties such as the Treaty of Paris, which ended the American Revolution, and the Treaty of Versailles, after World War I. Today, the Congress of France – the name given to the body created when both houses of the French Parliament, the National Assembly and the Senate, meet – gathers in the Château de Versailles to vote on revisions to the Constitution.
Name
The argument over the etymology of Versailles tends to privilege the Latin word versare, meaning "to keep turning, turn over and over", an expression used in medieval times for ploughed lands, cleared lands (lands that had been repeatedly "turned over"). This word formation is similar to Latin seminare ("to sow") which gave French semailles ("sowings", "sown seeds").
During the Revolution of 1789, city officials had proposed to the convention to rename Versailles Berceau-de-la-Liberté ("Cradle of Liberty"), but they had to retract their proposal when confronted with the objections of the majority of the population.
A seat of power
From May 1682, when Louis XIV moved the court and government permanently to Versailles, until his death in September 1715, Versailles was the unofficial capital of the kingdom of France. For the next seven years, during the Régence of Philippe d'Orléans, the royal court of the young King Louis XV was the first in Paris, while the Regent governed from his Parisian residence, the Palais-Royal. Versailles was again the unofficial capital of France from June 1722, when Louis XV returned to Versailles, until October 1789, when a Parisian mob forced Louis XVI and the royal family to move to Paris. Versailles again became the unofficial capital of France from March 1871, when Adolphe Thiers' government took refuge in Versailles, fleeing the insurrection of the Paris Commune, until November 1879, when the newly elected government and parliament returned to Paris. During the various periods when government affairs were conducted from Versailles, Paris remained the official capital of France.
Versailles was made the préfecture of the Seine-et-Oise département at its inception in March 1790 (at which time Seine-et-Oise had approximately 420,000 inhabitants). By the 1960s, with the growth of the Paris suburbs, the Seine-et-Oise had reached more than 2 million inhabitants, and was deemed too large and ungovernable, and thus it was split into three départements in January 1968. Versailles was made the préfecture of the Yvelines département, the largest chunk of the former Seine-et-Oise. At the 2017 census the Yvelines had 1,438,266 inhabitants.
The Hôtel de Ville has been the meeting place of the town council since 1900.
Versailles is the seat of a Roman Catholic diocese (bishopric) which was created in 1790. The diocese of Versailles is subordinate to the archdiocese of Paris.
In 1975, Versailles was made the seat of a Court of Appeal whose jurisdiction covers the western suburbs of Paris.
Since 1972, Versailles has been the seat of one of France's 30 nationwide académies (districts) of the Ministry of National Education. The académie de Versailles, the largest of France's thirty académies by its number of pupils and students, is in charge of supervising all the elementary schools and high schools of the western suburbs of Paris.
Versailles is also an important node for the French army, a tradition going back to the monarchy with, for instance, the military camp of Satory and other institutions.
Geography
Versailles is located 17.1 km (10.6 mi) west-southwest from the centre of Paris. The city sits on an elevated plateau, 130 to 140 metres (430 to 460 ft) above sea level (whereas the elevation of the centre of Paris is only 33 m (108 ft) above sea level), surrounded by wooded hills: in the north the forests of Marly and Fausses-Reposes, and in the south the forests of Satory and Meudon.
The city (commune) of Versailles has an area of 26.18 km2 (10.11 sq mi; 6,470 acres), which is a quarter of the area of the city of Paris. In 1989, Versailles had a population density of 3,344/km2 (8,660/sq mi), whereas Paris had a density of 20,696/km2 (53,600/sq mi).
Born out of the will of a king, the city has a rational and symmetrical grid of streets. By the standards of the 18th century, Versailles was a very modern European city. Versailles was used as a model for the building of Washington, D.C., by Pierre Charles L'Enfant.
Climate
Versailles has an oceanic climate (Köppen: Cfb). Summer days are usually warm and pleasant with average temperatures between 15 and 25 °C (59 and 77 °F), and a fair amount of sunshine. in the winter, sunshine is scarce; days are cool, and nights are cold but generally above freezing with low temperatures around 3 °C (37 °F). Light night frosts are however quite common, but the temperature seldom dips below −5 °C (23 °F). Snow falls every year, but rarely stays on the ground. The city sometimes sees light snow or flurries with or without accumulation.
| Climate data for Versailles (Palace of Versailles), 1981–present | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 17.5 (63.5) | 22.9 (73.2) | 25.4 (77.7) | 31.5 (88.7) | 36.0 (96.8) | 37.6 (99.7) | 41.9 (107.4) | 40.2 (104.4) | 35.7 (96.3) | 30.7 (87.3) | 22.5 (72.5) | 17.5 (63.5) | 41.9 (107.4) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 6.9 (44.4) | 9.1 (48.4) | 13.0 (55.4) | 16.4 (61.5) | 20.4 (68.7) | 23.5 (74.3) | 25.9 (78.6) | 25.8 (78.4) | 22 (72) | 17.2 (63.0) | 11.5 (52.7) | 8.1 (46.6) | 16.7 (62.0) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 5.4 (41.7) | 6.1 (43.0) | 9.3 (48.7) | 11.9 (53.4) | 15.6 (60.1) | 18.6 (65.5) | 20.8 (69.4) | 20.7 (69.3) | 17.3 (63.1) | 13.5 (56.3) | 8.8 (47.8) | 5.9 (42.6) | 12.8 (55.1) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 3.0 (37.4) | 3.1 (37.6) | 5.5 (41.9) | 7.3 (45.1) | 10.8 (51.4) | 13.7 (56.7) | 15.8 (60.4) | 15.6 (60.1) | 12.7 (54.9) | 9.8 (49.6) | 6.1 (43.0) | 3.7 (38.7) | 8.9 (48.1) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −13.8 (7.2) | −11.6 (11.1) | −6.2 (20.8) | −2.0 (28.4) | 2.3 (36.1) | 6.1 (43.0) | 8.7 (47.7) | 8.6 (47.5) | 5.0 (41.0) | −1.0 (30.2) | −6.3 (20.7) | −8.0 (17.6) | −13.8 (7.2) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 53 (2.1) | 43 (1.7) | 50 (2.0) | 55 (2.2) | 68 (2.7) | 55 (2.2) | 61 (2.4) | 57 (2.2) | 54 (2.1) | 64 (2.5) | 53 (2.1) | 62 (2.4) | 674 (26.5) |
| Average precipitation days (≥ 1.0 mm) | 10.5 | 9.4 | 10.6 | 9.3 | 9.9 | 8.4 | 7.9 | 7.8 | 8.0 | 10.1 | 10.6 | 11.1 | 113.6 |
| Source: Meteociel | |||||||||||||
History
The name of Versailles appears for the first time in a medieval document dated 1038. In the feudal system of medieval France, the lords of Versailles came directly under the king of France, with no intermediary overlords between them and the king; yet they were not very important lords. At the end of the 11th century, the village curled around a medieval castle and the Saint Julien church. Its farming activity and its location on the road from Paris to Dreux and Normandy brought prosperity to the village, culminating at the end of the 13th century, the so-called "century of Saint Louis", famous for the prosperity of northern France and the building of Gothic cathedrals. The 14th century brought the Black Death and the Hundred Years' War, and with it death and destruction. At the end of the Hundred Years' War in the 15th century, the village started to recover, with a population of only 100 inhabitants.
In 1561, , secretary of state for finances under King Charles IX, became lord of Versailles. He obtained permission to establish four annual fairs and a weekly market on Thursdays. The population of Versailles was 500 inhabitants. Martial de Loménie was murdered during the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre (24 August 1572). In 1575, Albert de Gondi, a man from Florence who had come to France with Catherine de' Medici, bought the seigneury of Versailles.
Louis XIII
Henceforth Versailles was the possession of the Gondi family, a family of wealthy and influential parliamentarians at the Parlement of Paris. Several times during the 1610s, the de Gondis invited King Louis XIII to hunt in the large forests around Versailles. In 1622, the king purchased a parcel of forest for his private hunting. In 1624, he acquired more and entrusted Philibert Le Roy with the construction of a small hunting lodge of red bricks and stone with a slate roof. In 1632, the king bought the totality of the land and seigneury of Versailles from Jean-François de Gondi. The hunting lodge was enlarged to the size of a small château between 1632 and 1634.
At the death of Louis XIII, in 1643, the village had 1,000 inhabitants.
This small château was the site of one of the historical events that took place during the reign of Louis XIII, on 10 November 1630, when, on the Day of the Dupes, the party of the queen mother was defeated and Richelieu was confirmed as Prime minister.
Louis XIV
King Louis XIV, son of Louis XIII, was only four years old when his father died. It was 20 years later, in 1661, when Louis XIV commenced his personal reign, that the young king showed interest in Versailles. The idea of leaving Paris, where, as a child, he had experienced first-hand the insurrection of the Fronde, had never left him. Louis XIV commissioned his architect Le Vau and his landscape architect Le Nôtre to transform the castle of his father, as well as the park, in order to accommodate the court. In 1678, after the Treaty of Nijmegen, the king decided that the court and the government would be established permanently in Versailles, which happened on 6 May 1682.
At the same time, a new city was emerging from the ground, resulting from an ingenious decree of the king dated 22 May 1671, whereby the king authorized anyone to acquire a lot in the new city for free. There were only two conditions to acquire a lot: 1- a token tax of 5 shillings (5 sols) per arpent of land should be paid every year ($0.03 per 1,000 sq ft (93 m2) per year in 2005 US dollars); 2- a house should be built on the lot according to the plans and models established by the Surintendant des Bâtiments du Roi (architect in chief of the royal demesne). The plans provided for a city built symmetrically with respect to the Avenue de Paris (which starts from the entrance of the castle). The roofs of the buildings and houses of the new city were not to exceed the level of the Marble Courtyard, at the entrance of the castle (built above a hill dominating the city), so that the perspective from the windows of the castle would not be obstructed.
The old village and the Saint Julien church were demolished to make room for buildings housing the administrative services managing the daily life in the castle. On both sides of the Avenue de Paris were built the Notre-Dame neighbourhood and the Saint-Louis neighbourhood, with new large churches, markets, and aristocratic mansions, all built in a very homogeneous style according to the models established by the Surintendant des Bâtiments du Roi. Versailles was a vast construction site for many years. Little by little came to Versailles all those who needed or desired to live close to the maximum power. At the death of the Sun King in 1715, the village of Versailles had turned into a city of approximately 30,000 inhabitants.
Louis XV and Louis XVI
When the court of King Louis XV returned to Versailles in 1722, the city had 24,000 inhabitants. With the reign of Louis XV, Versailles grew even further. Versailles was the capital of the most powerful kingdom in Europe, and the whole of Europe admired its new architecture and design trends. Soon enough, the strict building rules decided under Louis XIV were not respected anymore, real estate speculation flourished, and the lots that had been given for free under Louis XIV were now on the market for hefty prices. By 1744, the population reached 37,000 inhabitants. The cityscape changed considerably under kings Louis XV and Louis XVI. Buildings were now taller. King Louis XV built a Ministry of War, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs (where the Treaty of Paris (1783) ending the American Revolutionary War was signed in 1783 with the United Kingdom), and a Ministry of the Navy. By 1789, the population had reached 60,000 inhabitants, and Versailles was now the seventh or eighth-largest city in France, and one of the largest cities in Europe.
French Revolution
Seat of political power, Versailles naturally became the cradle of the French Revolution. The Estates-General met in Versailles on 5 May 1789. The members of the Third Estate took the Tennis Court Oath on 20 June 1789, and the National Constituent Assembly abolished feudalism on 4 August 1789. Eventually, on 5 and 6 October 1789, a crowd of women joined by some members of the national guard from Paris invaded the castle to protest bread prices and forced the royal family to move to Paris. The National Constituent Assembly followed the king to Paris soon afterwards, and Versailles lost its role as capital city. During this turbulent time, Jean-François Coste, who had also been the chief physician of the King's Armies, was appointed mayor of Versailles.
From then on, Versailles lost a good deal of its inhabitants. From 60,000, the population had declined to 26,974 inhabitants by 1806. The castle, stripped of its furniture and ornaments during the Revolution, was left abandoned, with only Napoleon briefly staying one night there and then leaving the castle for good. Louis-Philippe, who took the throne in the July Revolution of 1830, transformed the palace into a National Museum dedicated to "all the glories of France" in 1837. Versailles had become a sleepy town, a place of pilgrimage for those nostalgic for the old monarchy.
19th century to the present day
The Franco-Prussian War of 1870 put Versailles in the limelight again. On 18 January 1871, the victorious Germans proclaimed the king of Prussia, Wilhelm I, emperor of Germany in the very Hall of Mirrors of the castle, in an attempt to take revenge for the conquests of Louis XIV two centuries earlier. Then in March of the same year, following the insurrection of the Paris Commune, the French Third Republic government under Thiers relocated to Versailles, and from there directed the military suppression of the insurrection.
Restoration of a monarchy almost occurred in 1873, with parliament offering the crown to Henri, comte de Chambord, but his refusal to accept the tricolour flag that had been adopted during the Revolution made the restoration of monarchy impossible for the time being. Versailles became again the political centre of France, full of buzz and rumours, with its population briefly peaking at 61,686 in 1872, matching the record level of population reached on the eve of the French Revolution 83 years earlier. Eventually, however, left-wing republicans won a string of parliamentary elections, defeating the parties supporting a restoration of the monarchy, and the new majority decided to relocate the government to Paris in November 1879. Versailles then experienced a new population setback (48,324 inhabitants at the 1881 census). After that, Versailles never again functioned as the seat of the capital of France, but the presence of the French Parliament there in the 1870s left a vast hall, built in one aisle of the palace, which the French Parliament uses when it meets in Congress to amend the French Constitution, as well as when the President of France addresses the two chambers of the French Parliament.
Only in 1911 did Versailles definitely recover its level of population of 1789, with 60,458 inhabitants at the 1911 census. In 1919, at the end of the First World War, Versailles came into the limelight again as the various treaties ending the war were signed in the castle proper and in the Grand Trianon. After 1919, as the suburbs of Paris continued to expand, Versailles was absorbed by the urban area of Paris and the city experienced a strong demographic and economic growth, turning it into a large suburban city of the metropolitan area of Paris. The role of Versailles as an administrative and judicial centre has been reinforced in the 1960s and 1970s, and somehow Versailles has become the main centre of the western suburbs of Paris.
In the present times, the centre of the town has kept its very bourgeois atmosphere, while more middle-class neighbourhoods have developed around the train stations and on the outskirts of the city. Versailles is a chic suburb of Paris, well linked with the centre of Paris by several train lines. However, the city is extremely compartmentalized, divided by large avenues inherited from the monarchy which create the impression of several small cities ignoring each other. Versailles was never an industrial city, even though there are a few chemical and food-processing plants. Essentially, Versailles is a place of services, such as public administration, tourism, business congresses, and festivals. From 1951 until France's withdrawal from the NATO unified command in 1966, nearby Rocquencourt functioned as the site for SHAPE. Versailles is an important military centre, with several units and training schools headquartered at the Satory military base, which hosted the headquarters of the famed 2nd French Armored Division until 1999, and where a military exhibition is organized[by whom?] annually.
Culture
Versailles' primary cultural attraction is the Palace, with its ornately decorated rooms and historic significance. The Potager du roi is a kitchen garden created under Louis XIV to supply fruits and vegetables to the Court. It is officially recognized as a Remarkable Garden of France.
The town also has other points of cultural notability; in recent times, its position as an affluent suburb of Paris has meant that it forms a part of the Paris artistic scene, and musical groups such as Phoenix, Air, Fuzati, and Daft Punk have some link to the city, as does the director Michel Gondry.
Sport
Football Club de Versailles 78 is a semi-professional association football club founded in 1989. Their home stadium is the Stade de Montbauron, which has a capacity of 6,208 people.
Population
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Immigration
| Born in metropolitan France | Born outside metropolitan France | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 87.9% | 12.1% | |||
| Born in overseas France | Born in foreign countries with French citizenship at birth1 | EU-15 immigrants2 | Non-EU-15 immigrants | |
| 0.9% | 4.2% | 3.2% | 3.8% | |
| 1 This group is made up largely of former French settlers, such as pieds-noirs in Northwest Africa, followed by former colonial citizens who had French citizenship at birth (such as was often the case for the native elite in French colonies), as well as to a lesser extent foreign-born children of French expatriates. A foreign country is understood as a country not part of France in 1999, so a person born for example in 1950 in Algeria, when Algeria was an integral part of France, is nonetheless listed as a person born in a foreign country in French statistics. 2 An immigrant is a person born in a foreign country not having French citizenship at birth. An immigrant may have acquired French citizenship since moving to France, but is still considered an immigrant in French statistics. On the other hand, persons born in France with foreign citizenship (the children of immigrants) are not listed as immigrants. | ||||
Education
The headquarters of the Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines University is located in the city, as well as the ISIPCA, a post-graduate school in perfume, cosmetics products and food flavour formulation.
Transport
Versailles is served by Versailles-Chantiers station, which is an interchange station on Paris RER line C, on the Transilien La Défense suburban rail line, on the Transilien Paris-Montparnasse suburban rail line, and on several national rail lines, including low-frequency TGV service.
Versailles is also served by two other stations on Paris RER line C: Versailles-Château–Rive Gauche (the closest station to the Palace of Versailles and consequently the station most frequently used by tourists) and .
Versailles is also served by two stations on the Transilien Paris-Saint-Lazare suburban rail line: Versailles-Rive Droite and Montreuil.
Twin towns – sister cities
Versailles is twinned with:
- Carthage, Tunisia
- Gyeongju, South Korea
- Nara, Japan
- Potsdam, Germany
- Taipei, Taiwan
Notable people
- Philip V of Spain (1683–1746), King of Spain
- Charles-Michel de l'Épée (1712–1789), philanthropic educator
- Louis-Augustin Richer (1740–1819), singer and composer
- Louis-Alexandre Berthier (1753–1815), Marshal of the Empire
- Lazare Hoche (1768–1797), general
- Charles Ferdinand, Duke of Berry (1778–1820), prince of France
- Georges Pfeiffer (1835–1908), composer and pianist
- Léonie Yahne (1867–1950), actress
- Pierre Vaillandet (1888–1971), politician
- Yves Brayer (1907–1990), painter
- Hélène Boucher (1908–1934), pilot
- Albert Malbois (1915–2017), Roman Catholic bishop
- Jean-François Lyotard (1924–1998), philosopher
- Stéphane Audran (1932–2018), actress
- Joëlle Mélin (born 1950), politician
- Boris Williams (born 1957), musician
- Marine Jahan (born 1959), dancer
- Bruno Podalydès (born 1961), writer, director and actor
- Michel Gondry (born 1963), film and music video director
- Stéphane Franke (1964–2011), Franco-German athlete
- Jean-Benoît Dunckel (born 1965), musician
- Grégoire de Galzain (born 1971), racing driver
- Mabrouk El Mechri (born 1976), director, screenwriter and actor
- Thomas Mars (born 1977), rock musician
- Mory Correa (born 1979), basketball player
- Hoshi (born 1996), singer and songwriter
- James Hazen Hyde (1876–1959), American businessman, bibliophile and patron of the arts
- Arabelle Raphael, pornographic film actress and artist
- Neal Maupay (born 1996), footballer
See also
- Établissement public du château, du musée et du domaine national de Versailles
- Potager du roi, Versailles
References
- "Répertoire national des élus: les maires" (in French). data.gouv.fr, Plateforme ouverte des données publiques françaises. 13 September 2022. Archived from the original on 28 June 2020. Retrieved 7 October 2022.
- "Populations de référence 2022" (in French). The National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies. 19 December 2024.
- Population en historique depuis 1968 Archived 8 May 2024 at the Wayback Machine, INSEE
- University of Notre Dame, William Whitaker's Words, http://www.archives.nd.edu/cgi-bin/wordz.pl?keyword=versare
- Georges Moussoir, Versailles, "Berceau de la Liberté", in Revue de l'histoire de Versailles et de Seine-et-Oise, 1899, pp. 215–224 Archived 28 July 2014 at the Wayback Machine (Gallica)
- SPLAF. "Ancien département: Seine-et-Oise" (in French). Archived from the original on 26 March 2010. Retrieved 7 July 2009.
- Téléchargement du fichier d'ensemble des populations légales en 2017 Archived 5 October 2020 at the Wayback Machine, INSEE
- "Mairie de Versailles – Salle du conseil municipal". Film France. Retrieved 3 February 2024.
- Phillips, P. Lee, F. R. G. S., List of maps and views of Washington and District of Columbia in the Library of Congress, Map Division, Government Printing Office, 1900, p. 16 [1]
- Courtney Traub (31 January 2018). "Visiting Paris in the Winter: A Complete Guide". tripsavvy. Archived from the original on 11 October 2017. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
- "Meteociel.fr 1981–2010 normales/records" (in French). Méteociel. Archived from the original on 8 May 2024. Retrieved 2 October 2022.
- La Grande Encyclopédie (1902). "Volume 31 (on page 882)" (in French). Retrieved 20 June 2007.
- Lane, John E. (John Edward) (1928). Jean-Francois Coste: chief physician of the French expeditionary forces in the American revolution. Wellcome Library. [Somerville, N.J.] ; [New York city] : [The American historical society, inc.]
- Des villages de Cassini aux communes d'aujourd'hui: Commune data sheet Versailles, EHESS (in French).
- Sound Opinions Show #204: 10.23.09
- "Twinning Relationship". commune-carthage.gov.tn. Carthage. Archived from the original on 12 December 2022. Retrieved 13 April 2021.
- "Sister Cities". gyeongju.go.kr. Gyeongju. Archived from the original on 21 June 2020. Retrieved 13 April 2021.
- "国内外の「姉妹都市」と「友好都市」". city.nara.lg.jp. Nara. Archived from the original on 4 June 2023. Retrieved 13 April 2021.
- "Jumelage". versailles.fr (in French). Versailles. Archived from the original on 8 May 2024. Retrieved 13 April 2021.
- "International Sister Cities". tcc.gov.tw. Taipei City. Archived from the original on 21 June 2022. Retrieved 15 December 2021.
External links
- Official website
- Wikimapia satellite view
- City council website
- Satellite Image of Versailles
- Palace of Versailles photos
This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Versailles Yvelines news newspapers books scholar JSTOR April 2017 Learn how and when to remove this message Versailles French pronunciation vɛʁsɑj is a commune in the department of the Yvelines Ile de France known worldwide for the Chateau de Versailles and the gardens of Versailles designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites Located in the western suburbs of the French capital 17 1 km 10 6 mi from the centre of Paris Versailles is a wealthy suburb of Paris with a service based economy and is a major tourist destination According to the 2017 census the population of the city is 85 862 inhabitants down from a peak of 94 145 in 1975 VersaillesPrefecture and communeFrom top left to bottom right Le Soir The Evening in the gardens of Versailles rue des Deux Portes the Chateau de Versailles taken from the gardens Versailles Cathedral equestrian statue of Louis XIV place d Armes in front of the Chateau Church of Notre Dame Versailles parish church of the Chateau the bassin d Apollon in the gardens of Versailles la salle du Jeu de paume where the Tennis Court Oath was signed the Musee Lambinet municipal museum of Versailles the Temple de l Amour Temple of Love garden of the Petit Trianon Coat of armsLocation in red within Paris inner and outer suburbsLocation of VersaillesVersaillesShow map of FranceVersaillesShow map of Ile de France region Coordinates 48 48 18 N 2 08 06 E 48 8050 N 2 1350 E 48 8050 2 1350CountryFranceRegionIle de FranceDepartmentYvelinesArrondissementVersaillesCantonVersailles 1 and 2IntercommunalityCA Versailles Grand ParcGovernment Mayor 2020 2026 Francois de Mazieres DVD Area126 18 km2 10 11 sq mi Population 2022 83 918 Density3 200 km2 8 300 sq mi DemonymVersaillaisTime zoneUTC 01 00 CET Summer DST UTC 02 00 CEST INSEE Postal code78646 78000Elevation103 180 m 338 591 ft avg 132 m or 433 ft 1 French Land Register data which excludes lakes ponds glaciers gt 1 km2 0 386 sq mi or 247 acres and river estuaries A new town founded at the will of King Louis XIV Versailles was the de facto capital of the Kingdom of France for over a century from 1682 to 1789 before becoming the cradle of the French Revolution After having lost its status as a royal city it became the prefecture regional capital of the Seine et Oise departement in 1790 then of Yvelines in 1968 It is also a Roman Catholic diocese Versailles is historically known for numerous treaties such as the Treaty of Paris which ended the American Revolution and the Treaty of Versailles after World War I Today the Congress of France the name given to the body created when both houses of the French Parliament the National Assembly and the Senate meet gathers in the Chateau de Versailles to vote on revisions to the Constitution NameThe argument over the etymology of Versailles tends to privilege the Latin word versare meaning to keep turning turn over and over an expression used in medieval times for ploughed lands cleared lands lands that had been repeatedly turned over This word formation is similar to Latin seminare to sow which gave French semailles sowings sown seeds During the Revolution of 1789 city officials had proposed to the convention to rename Versailles Berceau de la Liberte Cradle of Liberty but they had to retract their proposal when confronted with the objections of the majority of the population A seat of powerThe Hotel de Ville From May 1682 when Louis XIV moved the court and government permanently to Versailles until his death in September 1715 Versailles was the unofficial capital of the kingdom of France For the next seven years during the Regence of Philippe d Orleans the royal court of the young King Louis XV was the first in Paris while the Regent governed from his Parisian residence the Palais Royal Versailles was again the unofficial capital of France from June 1722 when Louis XV returned to Versailles until October 1789 when a Parisian mob forced Louis XVI and the royal family to move to Paris Versailles again became the unofficial capital of France from March 1871 when Adolphe Thiers government took refuge in Versailles fleeing the insurrection of the Paris Commune until November 1879 when the newly elected government and parliament returned to Paris During the various periods when government affairs were conducted from Versailles Paris remained the official capital of France Versailles was made the prefecture of the Seine et Oise departement at its inception in March 1790 at which time Seine et Oise had approximately 420 000 inhabitants By the 1960s with the growth of the Paris suburbs the Seine et Oise had reached more than 2 million inhabitants and was deemed too large and ungovernable and thus it was split into three departements in January 1968 Versailles was made the prefecture of the Yvelines departement the largest chunk of the former Seine et Oise At the 2017 census the Yvelines had 1 438 266 inhabitants The Hotel de Ville has been the meeting place of the town council since 1900 Versailles is the seat of a Roman Catholic diocese bishopric which was created in 1790 The diocese of Versailles is subordinate to the archdiocese of Paris In 1975 Versailles was made the seat of a Court of Appeal whose jurisdiction covers the western suburbs of Paris Since 1972 Versailles has been the seat of one of France s 30 nationwide academies districts of the Ministry of National Education The academie de Versailles the largest of France s thirty academies by its number of pupils and students is in charge of supervising all the elementary schools and high schools of the western suburbs of Paris Versailles is also an important node for the French army a tradition going back to the monarchy with for instance the military camp of Satory and other institutions GeographyVersailles is located 17 1 km 10 6 mi west southwest from the centre of Paris The city sits on an elevated plateau 130 to 140 metres 430 to 460 ft above sea level whereas the elevation of the centre of Paris is only 33 m 108 ft above sea level surrounded by wooded hills in the north the forests of Marly and Fausses Reposes and in the south the forests of Satory and Meudon The city commune of Versailles has an area of 26 18 km2 10 11 sq mi 6 470 acres which is a quarter of the area of the city of Paris In 1989 Versailles had a population density of 3 344 km2 8 660 sq mi whereas Paris had a density of 20 696 km2 53 600 sq mi Born out of the will of a king the city has a rational and symmetrical grid of streets By the standards of the 18th century Versailles was a very modern European city Versailles was used as a model for the building of Washington D C by Pierre Charles L Enfant ClimateVersailles has an oceanic climate Koppen Cfb Summer days are usually warm and pleasant with average temperatures between 15 and 25 C 59 and 77 F and a fair amount of sunshine in the winter sunshine is scarce days are cool and nights are cold but generally above freezing with low temperatures around 3 C 37 F Light night frosts are however quite common but the temperature seldom dips below 5 C 23 F Snow falls every year but rarely stays on the ground The city sometimes sees light snow or flurries with or without accumulation Climate data for Versailles Palace of Versailles 1981 presentMonth Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec YearRecord high C F 17 5 63 5 22 9 73 2 25 4 77 7 31 5 88 7 36 0 96 8 37 6 99 7 41 9 107 4 40 2 104 4 35 7 96 3 30 7 87 3 22 5 72 5 17 5 63 5 41 9 107 4 Mean daily maximum C F 6 9 44 4 9 1 48 4 13 0 55 4 16 4 61 5 20 4 68 7 23 5 74 3 25 9 78 6 25 8 78 4 22 72 17 2 63 0 11 5 52 7 8 1 46 6 16 7 62 0 Daily mean C F 5 4 41 7 6 1 43 0 9 3 48 7 11 9 53 4 15 6 60 1 18 6 65 5 20 8 69 4 20 7 69 3 17 3 63 1 13 5 56 3 8 8 47 8 5 9 42 6 12 8 55 1 Mean daily minimum C F 3 0 37 4 3 1 37 6 5 5 41 9 7 3 45 1 10 8 51 4 13 7 56 7 15 8 60 4 15 6 60 1 12 7 54 9 9 8 49 6 6 1 43 0 3 7 38 7 8 9 48 1 Record low C F 13 8 7 2 11 6 11 1 6 2 20 8 2 0 28 4 2 3 36 1 6 1 43 0 8 7 47 7 8 6 47 5 5 0 41 0 1 0 30 2 6 3 20 7 8 0 17 6 13 8 7 2 Average precipitation mm inches 53 2 1 43 1 7 50 2 0 55 2 2 68 2 7 55 2 2 61 2 4 57 2 2 54 2 1 64 2 5 53 2 1 62 2 4 674 26 5 Average precipitation days 1 0 mm 10 5 9 4 10 6 9 3 9 9 8 4 7 9 7 8 8 0 10 1 10 6 11 1 113 6Source MeteocielHistoryThe name of Versailles appears for the first time in a medieval document dated 1038 In the feudal system of medieval France the lords of Versailles came directly under the king of France with no intermediary overlords between them and the king yet they were not very important lords At the end of the 11th century the village curled around a medieval castle and the Saint Julien church Its farming activity and its location on the road from Paris to Dreux and Normandy brought prosperity to the village culminating at the end of the 13th century the so called century of Saint Louis famous for the prosperity of northern France and the building of Gothic cathedrals The 14th century brought the Black Death and the Hundred Years War and with it death and destruction At the end of the Hundred Years War in the 15th century the village started to recover with a population of only 100 inhabitants In 1561 secretary of state for finances under King Charles IX became lord of Versailles He obtained permission to establish four annual fairs and a weekly market on Thursdays The population of Versailles was 500 inhabitants Martial de Lomenie was murdered during the St Bartholomew s Day massacre 24 August 1572 In 1575 Albert de Gondi a man from Florence who had come to France with Catherine de Medici bought the seigneury of Versailles Louis XIII Louis XIII built the original hunting lodge that would become the Palace of Versailles under his son and successor Louis XIV Henceforth Versailles was the possession of the Gondi family a family of wealthy and influential parliamentarians at the Parlement of Paris Several times during the 1610s the de Gondis invited King Louis XIII to hunt in the large forests around Versailles In 1622 the king purchased a parcel of forest for his private hunting In 1624 he acquired more and entrusted Philibert Le Roy with the construction of a small hunting lodge of red bricks and stone with a slate roof In 1632 the king bought the totality of the land and seigneury of Versailles from Jean Francois de Gondi The hunting lodge was enlarged to the size of a small chateau between 1632 and 1634 At the death of Louis XIII in 1643 the village had 1 000 inhabitants This small chateau was the site of one of the historical events that took place during the reign of Louis XIII on 10 November 1630 when on the Day of the Dupes the party of the queen mother was defeated and Richelieu was confirmed as Prime minister Louis XIV King Louis XIV son of Louis XIII was only four years old when his father died It was 20 years later in 1661 when Louis XIV commenced his personal reign that the young king showed interest in Versailles The idea of leaving Paris where as a child he had experienced first hand the insurrection of the Fronde had never left him Louis XIV commissioned his architect Le Vau and his landscape architect Le Notre to transform the castle of his father as well as the park in order to accommodate the court In 1678 after the Treaty of Nijmegen the king decided that the court and the government would be established permanently in Versailles which happened on 6 May 1682 At the same time a new city was emerging from the ground resulting from an ingenious decree of the king dated 22 May 1671 whereby the king authorized anyone to acquire a lot in the new city for free There were only two conditions to acquire a lot 1 a token tax of 5 shillings 5 sols per arpent of land should be paid every year 0 03 per 1 000 sq ft 93 m2 per year in 2005 US dollars 2 a house should be built on the lot according to the plans and models established by the Surintendant des Batiments du Roi architect in chief of the royal demesne The plans provided for a city built symmetrically with respect to the Avenue de Paris which starts from the entrance of the castle The roofs of the buildings and houses of the new city were not to exceed the level of the Marble Courtyard at the entrance of the castle built above a hill dominating the city so that the perspective from the windows of the castle would not be obstructed The old village and the Saint Julien church were demolished to make room for buildings housing the administrative services managing the daily life in the castle On both sides of the Avenue de Paris were built the Notre Dame neighbourhood and the Saint Louis neighbourhood with new large churches markets and aristocratic mansions all built in a very homogeneous style according to the models established by the Surintendant des Batiments du Roi Versailles was a vast construction site for many years Little by little came to Versailles all those who needed or desired to live close to the maximum power At the death of the Sun King in 1715 the village of Versailles had turned into a city of approximately 30 000 inhabitants Versailles in 1789 Louis XV and Louis XVI When the court of King Louis XV returned to Versailles in 1722 the city had 24 000 inhabitants With the reign of Louis XV Versailles grew even further Versailles was the capital of the most powerful kingdom in Europe and the whole of Europe admired its new architecture and design trends Soon enough the strict building rules decided under Louis XIV were not respected anymore real estate speculation flourished and the lots that had been given for free under Louis XIV were now on the market for hefty prices By 1744 the population reached 37 000 inhabitants The cityscape changed considerably under kings Louis XV and Louis XVI Buildings were now taller King Louis XV built a Ministry of War a Ministry of Foreign Affairs where the Treaty of Paris 1783 ending the American Revolutionary War was signed in 1783 with the United Kingdom and a Ministry of the Navy By 1789 the population had reached 60 000 inhabitants and Versailles was now the seventh or eighth largest city in France and one of the largest cities in Europe French Revolution Seat of political power Versailles naturally became the cradle of the French Revolution The Estates General met in Versailles on 5 May 1789 The members of the Third Estate took the Tennis Court Oath on 20 June 1789 and the National Constituent Assembly abolished feudalism on 4 August 1789 Eventually on 5 and 6 October 1789 a crowd of women joined by some members of the national guard from Paris invaded the castle to protest bread prices and forced the royal family to move to Paris The National Constituent Assembly followed the king to Paris soon afterwards and Versailles lost its role as capital city During this turbulent time Jean Francois Coste who had also been the chief physician of the King s Armies was appointed mayor of Versailles From then on Versailles lost a good deal of its inhabitants From 60 000 the population had declined to 26 974 inhabitants by 1806 The castle stripped of its furniture and ornaments during the Revolution was left abandoned with only Napoleon briefly staying one night there and then leaving the castle for good Louis Philippe who took the throne in the July Revolution of 1830 transformed the palace into a National Museum dedicated to all the glories of France in 1837 Versailles had become a sleepy town a place of pilgrimage for those nostalgic for the old monarchy 19th century to the present day The Franco Prussian War of 1870 put Versailles in the limelight again On 18 January 1871 the victorious Germans proclaimed the king of Prussia Wilhelm I emperor of Germany in the very Hall of Mirrors of the castle in an attempt to take revenge for the conquests of Louis XIV two centuries earlier Then in March of the same year following the insurrection of the Paris Commune the French Third Republic government under Thiers relocated to Versailles and from there directed the military suppression of the insurrection Restoration of a monarchy almost occurred in 1873 with parliament offering the crown to Henri comte de Chambord but his refusal to accept the tricolour flag that had been adopted during the Revolution made the restoration of monarchy impossible for the time being Versailles became again the political centre of France full of buzz and rumours with its population briefly peaking at 61 686 in 1872 matching the record level of population reached on the eve of the French Revolution 83 years earlier Eventually however left wing republicans won a string of parliamentary elections defeating the parties supporting a restoration of the monarchy and the new majority decided to relocate the government to Paris in November 1879 Versailles then experienced a new population setback 48 324 inhabitants at the 1881 census After that Versailles never again functioned as the seat of the capital of France but the presence of the French Parliament there in the 1870s left a vast hall built in one aisle of the palace which the French Parliament uses when it meets in Congress to amend the French Constitution as well as when the President of France addresses the two chambers of the French Parliament The Chateau de Versailles Pavillon Dufour in the spring of 2006 Only in 1911 did Versailles definitely recover its level of population of 1789 with 60 458 inhabitants at the 1911 census In 1919 at the end of the First World War Versailles came into the limelight again as the various treaties ending the war were signed in the castle proper and in the Grand Trianon After 1919 as the suburbs of Paris continued to expand Versailles was absorbed by the urban area of Paris and the city experienced a strong demographic and economic growth turning it into a large suburban city of the metropolitan area of Paris The role of Versailles as an administrative and judicial centre has been reinforced in the 1960s and 1970s and somehow Versailles has become the main centre of the western suburbs of Paris In the present times the centre of the town has kept its very bourgeois atmosphere while more middle class neighbourhoods have developed around the train stations and on the outskirts of the city Versailles is a chic suburb of Paris well linked with the centre of Paris by several train lines However the city is extremely compartmentalized divided by large avenues inherited from the monarchy which create the impression of several small cities ignoring each other Versailles was never an industrial city even though there are a few chemical and food processing plants Essentially Versailles is a place of services such as public administration tourism business congresses and festivals From 1951 until France s withdrawal from the NATO unified command in 1966 nearby Rocquencourt functioned as the site for SHAPE Versailles is an important military centre with several units and training schools headquartered at the Satory military base which hosted the headquarters of the famed 2nd French Armored Division until 1999 and where a military exhibition is organized by whom annually CultureVersailles primary cultural attraction is the Palace with its ornately decorated rooms and historic significance The Potager du roi is a kitchen garden created under Louis XIV to supply fruits and vegetables to the Court It is officially recognized as a Remarkable Garden of France The town also has other points of cultural notability in recent times its position as an affluent suburb of Paris has meant that it forms a part of the Paris artistic scene and musical groups such as Phoenix Air Fuzati and Daft Punk have some link to the city as does the director Michel Gondry SportFootball Club de Versailles 78 is a semi professional association football club founded in 1989 Their home stadium is the Stade de Montbauron which has a capacity of 6 208 people PopulationHistorical populationYearPop p a 179335 093 180027 574 3 39 180626 974 0 37 182127 528 0 14 183128 477 0 34 183629 209 0 51 184135 412 3 93 184634 901 0 29 185135 367 0 27 185639 306 2 13 186143 899 2 23 186644 021 0 06 187261 686 5 78 187649 847 5 19 188148 324 0 62 188649 852 0 62 189151 679 0 72 189654 874 1 21 YearPop p a 190154 982 0 04 190654 820 0 06 191160 458 1 98 192164 753 0 69 192668 574 1 15 193166 859 0 51 193673 839 2 01 194670 141 0 51 195484 445 2 35 196286 759 0 34 196890 829 0 77 197594 145 0 51 198291 494 0 41 199087 789 0 52 199985 726 0 26 200786 979 0 18 201285 424 0 36 201785 862 0 10 Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues Updates on reimplementing the Graph extension which will be known as the Chart extension can be found on Phabricator and on MediaWiki org Source EHESS and INSEEImmigration Place of birth of residents of Versailles in 1999 Born in metropolitan France Born outside metropolitan France87 9 12 1 Born in overseas France Born in foreign countries with French citizenship at birth1 EU 15 immigrants2 Non EU 15 immigrants0 9 4 2 3 2 3 8 1 This group is made up largely of former French settlers such as pieds noirs in Northwest Africa followed by former colonial citizens who had French citizenship at birth such as was often the case for the native elite in French colonies as well as to a lesser extent foreign born children of French expatriates A foreign country is understood as a country not part of France in 1999 so a person born for example in 1950 in Algeria when Algeria was an integral part of France is nonetheless listed as a person born in a foreign country in French statistics 2 An immigrant is a person born in a foreign country not having French citizenship at birth An immigrant may have acquired French citizenship since moving to France but is still considered an immigrant in French statistics On the other hand persons born in France with foreign citizenship the children of immigrants are not listed as immigrants EducationThe headquarters of the Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines University is located in the city as well as the ISIPCA a post graduate school in perfume cosmetics products and food flavour formulation TransportRue Neuve Notre Dame in Versailles Versailles is served by Versailles Chantiers station which is an interchange station on Paris RER line C on the Transilien La Defense suburban rail line on the Transilien Paris Montparnasse suburban rail line and on several national rail lines including low frequency TGV service Versailles is also served by two other stations on Paris RER line C Versailles Chateau Rive Gauche the closest station to the Palace of Versailles and consequently the station most frequently used by tourists and Versailles is also served by two stations on the Transilien Paris Saint Lazare suburban rail line Versailles Rive Droite and Montreuil Twin towns sister citiesVersailles is twinned with Carthage Tunisia Gyeongju South Korea Nara Japan Potsdam Germany Taipei TaiwanNotable peoplePhilip V of Spain 1683 1746 King of Spain Charles Michel de l Epee 1712 1789 philanthropic educator Louis Augustin Richer 1740 1819 singer and composer Louis Alexandre Berthier 1753 1815 Marshal of the Empire Lazare Hoche 1768 1797 general Charles Ferdinand Duke of Berry 1778 1820 prince of France Georges Pfeiffer 1835 1908 composer and pianist Leonie Yahne 1867 1950 actress Pierre Vaillandet 1888 1971 politician Yves Brayer 1907 1990 painter Helene Boucher 1908 1934 pilot Albert Malbois 1915 2017 Roman Catholic bishop Jean Francois Lyotard 1924 1998 philosopher Stephane Audran 1932 2018 actress Joelle Melin born 1950 politician Boris Williams born 1957 musician Marine Jahan born 1959 dancer Bruno Podalydes born 1961 writer director and actor Michel Gondry born 1963 film and music video director Stephane Franke 1964 2011 Franco German athlete Jean Benoit Dunckel born 1965 musician Gregoire de Galzain born 1971 racing driver Mabrouk El Mechri born 1976 director screenwriter and actor Thomas Mars born 1977 rock musician Mory Correa born 1979 basketball player Hoshi born 1996 singer and songwriter James Hazen Hyde 1876 1959 American businessman bibliophile and patron of the arts Arabelle Raphael pornographic film actress and artist Neal Maupay born 1996 footballerSee alsoEtablissement public du chateau du musee et du domaine national de Versailles Potager du roi VersaillesReferences Repertoire national des elus les maires in French data gouv fr Plateforme ouverte des donnees publiques francaises 13 September 2022 Archived from the original on 28 June 2020 Retrieved 7 October 2022 Populations de reference 2022 in French The National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies 19 December 2024 Population en historique depuis 1968 Archived 8 May 2024 at the Wayback Machine INSEE University of Notre Dame William Whitaker s Words http www archives nd edu cgi bin wordz pl keyword versare Georges Moussoir Versailles Berceau de la Liberte inRevue de l histoire de Versailles et de Seine et Oise 1899 pp 215 224Archived 28 July 2014 at the Wayback Machine Gallica SPLAF Ancien departement Seine et Oise in French Archived from the original on 26 March 2010 Retrieved 7 July 2009 Telechargement du fichier d ensemble des populations legales en 2017 Archived 5 October 2020 at the Wayback Machine INSEE Mairie de Versailles Salle du conseil municipal Film France Retrieved 3 February 2024 Phillips P Lee F R G S List of maps and views of Washington and District of Columbia in the Library of Congress Map Division Government Printing Office 1900 p 16 1 Courtney Traub 31 January 2018 Visiting Paris in the Winter A Complete Guide tripsavvy Archived from the original on 11 October 2017 Retrieved 27 February 2018 Meteociel fr 1981 2010 normales records in French Meteociel Archived from the original on 8 May 2024 Retrieved 2 October 2022 La Grande Encyclopedie 1902 Volume 31 on page 882 in French Retrieved 20 June 2007 Lane John E John Edward 1928 Jean Francois Coste chief physician of the French expeditionary forces in the American revolution Wellcome Library Somerville N J New York city The American historical society inc Des villages de Cassini aux communes d aujourd hui Commune data sheet Versailles EHESS in French Sound Opinions Show 204 10 23 09 Twinning Relationship commune carthage gov tn Carthage Archived from the original on 12 December 2022 Retrieved 13 April 2021 Sister Cities gyeongju go kr Gyeongju Archived from the original on 21 June 2020 Retrieved 13 April 2021 国内外の 姉妹都市 と 友好都市 city nara lg jp Nara Archived from the original on 4 June 2023 Retrieved 13 April 2021 Jumelage versailles fr in French Versailles Archived from the original on 8 May 2024 Retrieved 13 April 2021 International Sister Cities tcc gov tw Taipei City Archived from the original on 21 June 2022 Retrieved 15 December 2021 External linksWikimedia Commons has media related to Versailles Official website Wikimapia satellite view City council website Satellite Image of Versailles Palace of Versailles photos
