Grand appartement de la reine

This article is about the grand appartement de la reine (Queen's grand apartment) of the Palace of Versailles.

Forming a parallel enfilade with that of the grand appartement du roi, the grand appartement de la reine served as the residence of three queens of France — Marie-Thérèse d’Autriche, wife of Louis XIV; Marie Leszczyńska, wife of Louis XV; and Marie-Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI. Additionally, Louis XIV’s granddaughter-in-law, Marie-Adélaïde de Savoie, as duchesse de Bourgogne, occupied these rooms from 1697, the year of her marriage, to her death in 1712.

When Louis Le Vau’s envelope of the château vieux (old palace) was completed, the grand appartement de la reine came to include a suite of seven enfilade rooms on the main floor in the left wing with an arrangement that mirrored almost exactly the grand appartement du roi in the right wing. The configuration was:

1. Chapel — corresponding to the salon de Diane in the King's grand apartment
2. Salle de gardes — corresponding to the salon de Mars in the King's grand apartment
3. Antichambre — corresponding to the salon de Mercure in the King's grand apartment
4. Chambre — corresponding to with the salon d’Apollon in the King's grand apartment
5. Grand cabinet — corresponding to the salon de Jupiter in the King's grand apartment
6. Oratory — corresponding to the salon de Saturne in the King's grand apartment
7. Petit cabinet — corresponding to the salon de Vénus in the King's grand apartment

As with the decoration of the ceiling in the grand appartement du roi, which depicted the heroic actions of Louis XIV as allegories from events taken from the antique past, the decoration of the grand appartement de la reine likewise depicted heroines from the antique past and harmonized with the general theme of a particular room’s decor.

With the construction of the Hall of Mirrors, which began in 1678, the configuration of the grand appartement de la reine changed. The chapel was transformed into the salle des gardes de la reine and it was in this room that the decorations from the salon de Jupiter were reused. The salle des gardes de la reine communicates with a loggia that issues from the escalier de la reine (Queen's staircase), which corresponded (albeit a smaller, though similarly-decorated example) to the escalier des ambassadeurs (Ambassador's Staircase) in the grand appartement du roi. The loggia also provides access to the appartement du roi, the suite of rooms in which Louis XIV lived. Toward the end of Louis XIV’s reign, the escalier de la reine became the principal entrance to the château, with the escalier des ambassadeurs used on rare state occasions. After the destruction of the escalier des ambassadeurs in 1752, the escalier de la reine became the main entrance to the château.

From 1682, the grand appartement de la reine included:

With the death of Louis XIV in 1715, the court moved to Vincennes and later to Paris. In 1722, Louis XV reinstalled the court at Versailles and began modifications to the château’s interior. Among the most noteworthy of the building projects during Louis XV’s reign, the redecoration of the chambre de la reine must be cited.

To commemorate the birth of his only son and heir, Louis, in 1729, Louis XV ordered a complete redecoration of the room. Elements of the chambre de la reine as it had been used by Marie-Thérèse and Marie-Adélaïde de Savoie were removed and a new, more modern decor was installed.

During her life at Versailles, Marie Leszczynska (1703–1768) lived in the grand appartement de la reine, to which she annexed the salon de la paid to serve as a music room. In 1770, when the Austrian archduchess Marie-Antoinette married the dauphin, later Louis XVI, she took up residence in these rooms. Upon Louis XVI’s ascension to the throne in 1774, Marie-Antoinette ordered major redecoration of the grand appartement de la reine. At this time, the queen’s apartment achieved the arrangement that we see today.