Versailles
10th Grade Age of Absolutism
• When Louis XIV was growing up in the old Palace d’
Royal, he was forced to live in cramped quarters with
hand me down clothes.
• Louis began to rule France himself at age 21.
• He attended a party at the home of his finance
minister. Louis was in awe at the splendid beauty and
luxury the home.
• His awe soon turned to anger when he came to realize
that the finance minister was embezzling funds from
him.
• Louis decided to make a change of
residence.
• As a young boy, Louis was enthralled with
his hunting cottage at Versailles.
• Versailles however was not your ideal spot
for a palace, especially one of such grand
scale.
• Versailles was located
in swampy marshlands
with very limited
water sources.
• However Louis would
not be denied and
construction began in
1689 and would
continue for over
twenty seven years.
• The construction
however was not easy.
The marshes bred
disease and of the
estimated 35,000
workers hundreds died
every day.
• When Louis moved in
Versailles became the
center of not only French
civilization and country,
but the center of Europe.
• Louis’s people and Europe
began to revolve around
him like his symbol the
sun.
• The cost of Versailles
will never be known
due to the fact that
Louis destroyed all the
receipts.
• It is estimated to have
cost $1,500,000,000 to
build and maintain.
• The results of the hard
work was splendid.
• With beautiful ornate
designs
• There were beautiful
frescos and paintings.
• The were beautiful
gardens that Louis
took daily walks.
• The many flowers
were changed daily as
Louis approached and
passed.
• Versailles with its’
glamour and splendor
came to symbolize the
self centered ideology
of the absolutism.