Why are there no bathrooms in Versailles?

Rooms with toilets, cesspools, and drainage systems only started to become common in the 19th century. At the Palace of Versailles, people would conduct their business in the corridors or in the gardens. In 1715, it was decreed that once a week the feces would be collected from the corridors.



People Also Ask

Hidden doors, secret passages, private studies, libraries and apartments… the palace holds concealed quarters in which French kings and queens once sought refuge, far from court stuffiness.

MORE DETAILS

But where did they stay? Most apartments consisted of a bedchamber, a cabinet and perhaps a wardrobe. The lucky ones could add a few antechambers or had rather large rooms. In this context, the servants' quarters were in the wardrobe.

MORE DETAILS

Beds used to be short because people didn't use to sleep lying down because old superstitions considered it to be the position of the dead. So they slept in half sitting position.

MORE DETAILS

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.

MORE DETAILS

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.

MORE DETAILS

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.

MORE DETAILS

The Hall of Mirrors, the most famous room in the Palace, was built to replace a large terrace designed by the architect Louis Le Vau, which opened onto the garden.

MORE DETAILS

Take a Peek Inside. We're guessing Marie Antoinette's TripAdvisor review of the Château de Versailles would have been decidedly mixed (Pastry chef: okay; security against angry mobs: subpar; verdict: two stars).

MORE DETAILS

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.

MORE DETAILS

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.

MORE DETAILS

In the Palace, there are toilets and changing tables before the ticket checks in the South Ministers' Wing and after the ticket checks in the basement of the Dufour Pavilion (Entrance A).

MORE DETAILS

Lastly, the Louveciennes aqueduct – 643 metres long – drew water from the Seine and carried it to the Deux Portes reservoir in Versailles. Four years and 1,800 men were required to complete the Marly Machine. The cost was considerable: 3.5 million livres to build it, plus the even higher cost of maintaining it.

MORE DETAILS

With an area equivalent to 27 football pitches and with a total of 3,418 rooms, the Royal Palace ranks as the largest palace in Western Europe, twice the size of Buckingham Palace or the Palace of Versailles.

MORE DETAILS