Editing Versailles, Yvelines (section)

==A seat of power==
[[File:Town hall of Versailles August 5, 2012.jpg|thumb|300px|The [[Hôtel de Ville, Versailles|Hôtel de Ville]]]]
From May 1682, when [[Louis XIV]] moved the court and government permanently to Versailles, until his death in September 1715, Versailles was the unofficial capital of the kingdom of France. For the next seven years, during the ''[[Régence]]'' of [[Philip II, Duke of Orléans|Philippe]] d'[[Duchy of Orléans|Orléans]], the royal court of the young King [[Louis XV]] was the first in Paris, while the Regent governed from his Parisian residence, the [[Palais-Royal]]. Versailles was again the unofficial capital of France from June 1722, when Louis XV returned to Versailles, until [[The Women's March on Versailles|October 1789]], when a Parisian mob forced [[Louis XVI]] and the royal family to move to Paris. Versailles again became the unofficial capital of France from March 1871, when [[Adolphe Thiers#Collapse of the Empire and the Paris Commune|Adolphe Thiers]]' government took refuge in Versailles, fleeing the insurrection of the [[Paris Commune]], until November 1879, when the newly elected government and parliament returned to Paris. During the various periods when government affairs were conducted from Versailles, Paris remained the official capital of France.

Versailles was made the ''[[préfecture]]'' of the [[Seine-et-Oise]] [[Departments of France|''département'']] at its inception in March 1790 (at which time Seine-et-Oise had approximately 420,000 inhabitants).<ref name=hist_pop>{{cite web |url=http://splaf.free.fr/78o.html |title=Ancien département: Seine-et-Oise |author=SPLAF |access-date=7 July 2009 |language=fr |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100326002004/http://splaf.free.fr/78o.html |archive-date=26 March 2010}}</ref> By the 1960s, with the growth of the Paris suburbs, the ''Seine-et-Oise'' had reached more than 2&nbsp;million inhabitants,<ref name=hist_pop /> and was deemed too large and ungovernable, and thus it was split into three ''départements'' in January 1968. Versailles was made the ''préfecture'' of the [[Yvelines]] ''département'', the largest chunk of the former ''Seine-et-Oise''. At the 2017 census the ''Yvelines'' had 1,438,266 inhabitants.<ref name=pop2017>[https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistiques/fichier/4265429/ensemble.pdf Téléchargement du fichier d'ensemble des populations légales en 2017] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201005055240/https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistiques/fichier/4265429/ensemble.pdf |date=5 October 2020 }}, [[INSEE]]</ref>

The [[Hôtel de Ville, Versailles|Hôtel de Ville]] has been the meeting place of the town council since 1900.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://locations.filmfrance.net/location/versailles-town-hall-town-council-room|title=Mairie de Versailles – Salle du conseil municipal|date=26 July 2005 |publisher=Film France|access-date=3 February 2024}}</ref>

Versailles is the seat of a Roman Catholic [[diocese]] (bishopric) which was created in 1790. The [[diocese of Versailles]] is subordinate to the [[archdiocese of Paris]].

In 1975, Versailles was made the seat of a [[Court of Appeal (France)|Court of Appeal]] whose jurisdiction covers the western suburbs of Paris.

Since 1972, Versailles has been the seat of one of France's 30 nationwide ''académies'' (districts) of the Ministry of National Education. The ''académie de Versailles'', the largest of France's thirty ''académies'' by its number of pupils and students, is in charge of supervising all the elementary schools and high schools of the western suburbs of Paris.

Versailles is also an important node for the French army, a tradition going back to the monarchy with, for instance, the military camp of [[Satory]] and other institutions.