The Palace of Versailles cannot be understood without its gardens, immense natural areas, inseparable from the architecture, both for their pleasure and for their capacity to extend to nature the demonstration of the glory and magnificence of a king, Louis XIV.

At Versailles, high and low gardens, major and transverse axes, flowerbeds and groves, walks and paths, boulingrins and vertugadins, open and covered areas, perspectives and points de vue, are all components that, blended with genius, form a whole of which flowers, embroidery, topiaries, grass cuttings, charmilles, basins, canals, fountains, water features and sculptures are the marvellous ornaments. Just as there were several castles – the one inherited from Louis XIII, that of Le Vau’s envelope and then Hardouin-Mansart’s – there were not one but many gardens…

Co Publisher: Château de Versailles et Editions Soteca, 2022
Number of pages: 100 pages
Dimensions: 19 x 26 cm

French only