When did people stop living in Versailles?

The royal family left the Palace of Versailles on 6 October 1789 for the Tuileries Palace in Paris, but many expected they would swiftly return. Even though the sovereign and the court were no longer in residence, the Palace was not left to go to ruin.



People officially stopped living in the Palace of Versailles as a primary royal residence in October 1789, during the early stages of the French Revolution. Following the "Women's March on Versailles," King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were forced by a revolutionary mob to leave the palace and relocate to the Tuileries Palace in Paris, bringing an end to the site's century-long tenure as the seat of absolute power. While the palace was maintained and occasionally used for diplomatic functions later on, it never returned to being a permanent home for the French court. Napoleon Bonaparte eventually chose to stay at the nearby Grand Trianon rather than the main palace, and in the 1830s, King Louis-Philippe officially transformed Versailles into the Museum of the History of France. Today, while it is one of the world's most visited museums, its grand apartments remain strictly preserved historical spaces where no one resides.

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Mesdames 1727-1800 The Mesdames lived at Versailles over a period of many years before fleeing during the French Revolution. The daughters of Louis XV all bore the honorific title of 'Madame'. There were eight princesses, not all of whom were raised at Versailles because their education was considered too expensive.

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To make the most of your visit at Versailles, plan to spend a full day in the estate. Read our advices to better organize your visit. Guided tours allow you to visit otherwise closed rooms and then to directly join free visit routes.

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You Can Now Spend the Night Inside the Palace Versailles For a Kingly $2,000 a Night. The historic site is now a hotel. Photo courtesy of Airelles Château de Versailles, Le Grand Contrôle. If you're looking for a luxury cultural getaway to Europe, you just might want to book a stay at France's Palace of Versailles.

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The Palace of Versailles is currently owned by the French state. Its formal title is the Public Establishment of the Palace, Museum and National Estate of Versailles. Since 1995, it has been run as a Public Establishment, with an independent administration and management supervised by the French Ministry of Culture.

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Despite its reputation for magnificence, life at Versailles, for both royals and servants, was no cleaner than the slum-like conditions in many European cities at the time. Women pulled up their skirts up to pee where they stood, while some men urinated off the balustrade in the middle of the royal chapel.

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Following the death of Louis XIV in September 1715, the court abandoned Versailles for Vincennes and transplanted itself briefly to Paris the following December. Versailles entered a long period of neglect.

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How much would it cost to build Versailles in today's money? Versailles Palace could take anywhere between $2-300 billion to build in today's money.

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Born at Versailles, Marie-Thérèse Charlotte de France, otherwise known as “Madame Royale”, was the eldest child of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette. She spent her childhood in the court and was one of the few royal children to survive the French Revolution.

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In Versailles the queen had a series of small rooms beyond her State Apartments which were reserved for her personal use and for service by her ladies-in-waiting. Marie Leszczynska used to retire here to read, paint, reflect, or receive private visits.

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While it smells fine now, hygiene practices (or the lack thereof) in France during Louis XIII's reign meant that the palace smelled like urine, fecal matter, and more. Some claim that a lack of toilets in the palace even led some visitors to relieve themselves behind curtains and pillars.

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Louis XVI died at the guillotine on 21 January 1793. He was the last king to live at the Palace of Versailles, and the revolutionaries duly gave him the nickname “Louis the Last”.

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While it smells fine now, hygiene practices (or the lack thereof) in France during Louis XIII's reign meant that the palace smelled like urine, fecal matter, and more. Some claim that a lack of toilets in the palace even led some visitors to relieve themselves behind curtains and pillars.

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Gold leaf certainly features in the decoration style of the interior of Versailles. In fact, there were solid gold table services (flatware and plates) in Versailles in the eighteenth century. But the Palace of Versailles itself is not made of gold.

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Royal Palace of Caserta is the largest palace in the world and is a magnificent representation of Baroque architecture. This Luigi Vanvitelli creation has revolutionized world architecture so much that it is the most copied palace in the world. The palace was meant to be a centerpiece in the uprising city of Caserta.

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