X-Nico

4 unusual facts about Gardens of Versailles


Gardens of Versailles

With the arrival of Pierre de Nolhac as director of the museum in 1892, a new era of historical research began at Versailles.

The sculptors Jean-Baptiste Tuby, Etienne Le Hongre, Pierre Le Gros, and the brothers Gaspard and Balthazard Marsy worked on these thirty-nine fountains each of which was accompanied by a plaque on which the fable was printed, with verse written by Isaac de Benserade; from these plaques, Louis XIV’s son learned to read.

It was as the cave of the sea nymph, Thetis, where Apollo rested after driving his chariot to light the sky.

With Louis XIII’s final purchase of lands from Jean-François de Gondi in 1632 and his assumption of the seigneurial role of Versailles in the 1630s, formal gardens were laid out west of the château.



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