The Palace of Versailles is a French château and historic monument located in Versailles, in the Yvelines. It was the main residence of the kings of France Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI. The king, the court and the government resided there permanently from May 6, 1682 to October 6, 1789, with the exception of the years of the Regency from 1715 to 1723. Wanted by Louis XIV in order to glorify the French monarchy, the château is the most important monument of his reign and one of the masterpieces of classical architecture. It exerted a great influence in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries in the field of architecture and decorative arts1.
The château is made up of a complex set of courtyards and buildings preserving an architectural harmony. It covers 63,154 m2, divided into 2,300 rooms, 1,000 of which are assigned to the National Museum of the Palaces of Versailles and Trianon2.
The park of the Palace of Versailles covers 815 ha, compared to more than 8,000 ha before the French Revolutionnote 1, including 93 ha of gardens. It includes many elements, including the Petit and Grand Trianon (which was the residence of Napoleon I, Louis XVIII, Charles X, Louis-Philippe I, and Napoleon III), the Queen's Hamlet, the Grand and Petit Canal, a menagerie (now destroyed), an orangery and the Swiss pond. Among the most visited in Europe, the site is at the heart of discussions on the management of overtourism.