Editing Palace of Versailles (section)

===Construction===
{{Multiple image
|image1=Chateau de Versailles 1668 Pierre Patel.jpg|caption1=Versailles in 1668, painted by [[Pierre Patel]]|alt1=A painting of the Palace and Versailles and its gardens as it appeared in 1668
|image2=Chateau de Versailles 1675FXD.jpg|caption2=Le Vau's garden façade around 1675|alt2=A painting of the garden façade built by Louis Le Vau from 1668 to 1670
}}

Work at Versailles was at first concentrated on [[Gardens of Versailles|gardens]],{{sfn|Walton|1986|pp=55–63}}{{sfn|Spawforth|2008|p=4}} and through the 1660s, Le Vau only added two detached service wings and a forecourt to the château.{{sfn|Ayers|2004|p=334}}{{sfn|Berger|1994|p=54}} But in 1668–69,{{sfn|Spawforth|2008|p=6}}{{sfn|Walton|1986|p=67}} as a response to the growth of the gardens,{{sfn|Walton|1986|pp=62–63, 69}} and victory over Spain in the [[War of Devolution]],{{sfn|Spawforth|2008|p=6}}{{sfn|Walton|1986|p=67}} Louis XIV decided to turn Versailles into a full-scale royal residence.{{sfn|Ayers|2004|p=334}}{{sfn|Berger|1994|p=61}} He vacillated between replacing or incorporating his father's château, but settled on the latter by the end of the decade,{{sfn|Spawforth|2008|p=6}}{{sfn|Walton|1986|p=67}}{{sfn|Berger|1994|pp=61, 64}} and from 1668 to 1671,{{sfn|Ayers|2004|pp=334–35}} Louis XIII's château was encased on three sides in a feature dubbed the ''[[wikt:enveloppe#French|enveloppe]]''.{{sfn|Walton|1986|p=67}}{{sfn|Berger|1994|p=64}} This gave the château a new, [[Italianate architecture|Italianate]] façade overlooking the gardens, but preserved the courtyard façade,{{sfn|Hoog|1996|p=370}}{{sfn|Spawforth|2008|p=7}} resulting in a mix of styles and materials that dismayed Louis XIV{{sfn|Spawforth|2008|p=7}} and that Colbert described as a "patchwork".{{sfn|Jones|2018|p=24}} Attempts to homogenize the two façades failed, and in 1670 Le Vau died,{{sfn|Spawforth|2008|pp=7–8}} leaving the post of First Architect to the King vacant for the next seven years.{{sfn|Berger|1994|p=22}}

Le Vau was succeeded at Versailles by his assistant, architect [[François d'Orbay]].{{sfn|Berger|1985|p=22}} Work at the palace during the 1670s focused on its interiors, as the palace was then nearing completion,{{sfn|Hoog|1996|p=370}}{{sfn|Walton|1986|p=91}} though d'Orbay expanded Le Vau's service wings and connected them to the château,{{sfn|Hoog|1996|p=370}} and built a pair of pavilions for government employees in the forecourt.{{sfn|Palace of Versailles: History}}{{sfn|Jones|2018|p=22}} In 1670, d'Orbay was tasked by Louis XIV with designing a city, also called [[Versailles, Yvelines|Versailles]],{{sfn|City of Versailles: History}} to house and service Louis XIV's growing government and court.{{sfn|Spawforth|2008|pp=7–8}}{{sfn|Walton|1986|p=38}} The granting of land to courtiers for the construction of [[Hôtel particulier|townhouses]] that resembled the palace began in 1671.{{sfn|Spawforth|2008|pp=7–8}}{{sfn|Jones|2018|pp=27–28}} The next year, the [[Franco-Dutch War]] began and funding for Versailles was cut until 1674,{{sfn|Walton|1986|pp=50–51}} when Louis XIV had work begun on the {{ill|Ambassadors' Staircase|fr|Escalier des Ambassadeurs}}, a grand staircase for the reception of guests, and demolished the last of the village of Versailles.{{sfn|Spawforth|2008|pp=9, 11}}

[[File:General view of Versailles in circa 1682 by Adam Perelle.png|thumb|left|Versailles around 1682, engraving by [[Adam Perelle]]]]

Following the end of the Franco-Dutch War with French victory in 1678, Louis XIV appointed as First Architect [[Jules Hardouin-Mansart]],{{sfn|Jones|2018|p=25}}{{sfn|Walton|1986|p=93}} an experienced architect in Louis XIV's confidence,{{sfn|Berger|1994|pp=86–87, 113}} who would benefit from a restored budget and large workforce of former soldiers.{{sfn|Walton|1986|pp=50–51}}{{sfn|Spawforth|2008|p=18}} Mansart began his tenure with the addition from 1678 to 1681 of the [[Hall of Mirrors]],{{sfn|Berger|1994|p=115}} a renovation of the courtyard façade of Louis XIII's château,{{sfn|Jones|2018|p=35}} and the expansion of d'Orbay's pavilions to create the [[Ministers' Wings]] in 1678–79.{{sfn|Palace of Versailles: Capital}} Adjacent to the palace, Hardouin-Mansart built a pair of [[stables]] called the [[Grande Écurie|Grande]] and [[Petite Écurie|Petite Écuries]] from 1679 to 1682{{sfn|Berger|1994|p=114}}{{sfn|Palace of Versailles: Royal Stables}} and the {{ill|Grand Commun|fr}}, which housed the palace's servants and general kitchens, from 1682 to 1684.{{sfn|Palace of Versailles: Grand Commun}} Hardouin-Mansart also added two entirely new wings in Le Vau's Italianate style to house the court,{{sfn|Spawforth|2008|pp=10–11}} first at the south end of the palace from 1679 to 1681{{sfn|Jones|2018|p=43}} and then at its north end from 1685 to 1689.{{sfn|Palace of Versailles: History}}

War and the resulting diminished funding slowed construction at Versailles for the rest of the 17th century.{{sfn|Walton|1986|pp=50–51}} The [[Nine Years' War]], which began in 1688, stopped work altogether until 1698.{{sfn|Spawforth|2008|p=18}} Three years later, however, the even more expensive [[War of the Spanish Succession]] began and,{{sfn|Walton|1986|p=51}} combined with poor harvests in 1693–94 and 1709–10,{{sfn|Jones|2018|p=52}}{{sfn|Doyle|2001|p=190}} plunged France into crisis.{{sfn|Doyle|2001|p=190}}{{sfn|Walton|1986|pp=51–52}} Louis XIV thus slashed funding and cancelled some of the work Hardouin-Mansart had planned in the 1680s, such as the remodelling of the courtyard façade in the Italianate style. Louis XIV and Hardouin-Mansart focused on a permanent [[Chapels of Versailles|palace chapel]],{{sfn|Walton|1986|pp=50–51}}{{sfn|Spawforth|2008|pp=17–19}} the construction of which lasted from 1699 to 1710.{{sfn|Hoog|1996|p=370}}{{sfn|Jones|2018|p=53}}

[[File:Nicolas Cochin Masked Ball 1745.jpg|thumb|A masked ball in the [[Hall of Mirrors]] (1745) by [[Charles-Nicolas Cochin]]]]

Louis XIV's successors, [[Louis XV]] and [[Louis XVI]], largely left Versailles as they inherited it and focused on the palace's interiors. Louis XV's modifications began in the 1730s, with the completion of the [[Salon d'Hercule]], a [[ballroom]] in the north wing, and the expansion of the [[Petit appartement du roi|king's private apartment]],{{Sfn|Jones|2018|p=59–60, 65}}{{sfn|Spawforth|2008|pp=20–21}} which required the demolition of the Ambassadors' Staircase.{{sfn|Spawforth|2008|p=9}} In 1748, Louis XV began construction of a palace theatre, the [[Royal Opera of Versailles]] at the northernmost end of the palace,{{sfn|Spawforth|2008|p=21}}{{sfn|Palace of Versailles: Royal Opera}} but completion was delayed until 1770;{{sfn|Palace of Versailles: Royal Opera}}{{sfn|Jones|2018|p=61}} construction was interrupted in the 1740s by the [[War of the Austrian Succession]] and then again in 1756 with the start of the [[Seven Years' War]].{{sfn|Spawforth|2008|p=21}}{{sfn|Jones|2018|p=61}} These wars emptied the royal treasury<!--Spawforth p21--> and thereafter construction was mostly funded by [[Madame du Barry]], Louis XV's favourite mistress.<!--{{sfn|Spawforth|2008|pp=21, 23}}--> In 1771, Louis XV had the northern Ministers' Wing rebuilt in Neoclassical style by [[Ange-Jacques Gabriel]], his court architect, as it was in the process of falling down. That work was also stopped by financial constraints,<!--{{sfn|Spawforth|2008|pp=22–23}} and it was not completed until 1780.{{cn|date=September 2021}}--> and it remained incomplete when Louis XV died in 1774. In 1784, Louis XVI briefly moved the royal family to the [[Château de Saint-Cloud]] ahead of more renovations to the Palace of Versailles, but construction could not begin because of financial difficulty and [[Causes of the French Revolution|political crisis]].{{sfn|Spawforth|2008|pp=21–24}} In 1789, the [[French Revolution]] swept the royal family and government out of Versailles forever.{{sfn|Hoog|1996|p=370}}{{sfn|Spawforth|2008|p=24}}