Society & Politics

Did you know that Versailles inspired so many monuments?

" Having been unable to visit France during Louis XIV's lifetime, Peter the Great resided at Versailles, Trianon and Marly in May 1717 (when a second offer of a Russian alliance was refused by the French government). Despite his personal taste for simplicity, between 1714 and 1723 he had a vast country palace built on the outskirts of St Petersburg, which he named Peterhof.

The building, partly inspired by Versailles, was embellished with a park and fountains designed by a disciple of Le Nôtre, Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond, and a neighbouring pavilion, Marlia (Marly also inspired Chatsworth in England and Monbijou Castle in Berlin). He also founded on the French model an official newspaper, a tapestry factory and an Academy of Sciences and, after 1718, introduced in his capital <<<assemblies "of men and women in the French style".

Other palaces and court towns inspired in part by Versailles include Hampton Court in England, where Charles II and his successors had a parade room in the state flats, dined in public and held levees and council meetings; Salzdahlum and Wolfenbüttel in Brunswick; Rastatt and Karslruhe in Baden; the imposing complex of Ludwigsburg near Stuttgart, which after 1718 became the seat of government of the Dukes of Württemberg, with an opera house and a French theatre 23 ;

Frederick the Great's Sans-Souci (built from 1745 to 1748, also partly inspired by Marly) and Potsdam's Neues Palais (built from 1763 to 1767), which avoided Berlin almost as much as its hero Louis XIV had avoided Paris ; last but not least, the city of Washington itself, designed after 1791 according to a similar trident plan, and incorporating a residence for the head of state, government offices and a legislative assembly, by Pierre-Charles L'Enfant, an architect whose father, Pierre L'Enfant, was a court painter at Versailles. "
Did you know that Versailles inspired so many monuments?
Did you know that Versailles inspired so many monuments?
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