Grand Trianon

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Grand Trianon, bird's eye view around 1700. View through the main courtyard to the castle, the gallery wing leads at right angles to the Trianon sous Bois

The Grand Trianon or Great Trianon is a pleasure palace in the park of the Palace of Versailles near Paris in France , which King Louis XIV had built as a private retreat based on the plans of the architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart .

Grand Trianon

History of the Grand Trianon

Grand Trianon, Napoléon's bedroom
The Galerie des Cotelles, the place where the Treaty of Trianon was signed on June 4, 1920

In 1665, Louis XIV acquired the village of Trianon on the site of today's park palace in order to expand the palace gardens of Versailles. After the village was demolished, Louis Le Vau built an ensemble of one larger and four smaller pavilions grouped around a courtyard between 1670 and 1672 . The larger royal pavilion, which consisted of a central salon as well as an “Apartment de Diane” and an “Apartment des Amours”, was intended for short stays, the other pavilions were intended for the preparation of meals. The buildings were lavishly decorated with faience tiles , which is why the castle was called Trianon de Porcelaine . The faience jewelry turned out to be not winter-proof and after a few years the tiles were largely cracked and the ensemble was in poor condition.

The king decided to build a larger palace, which was to serve as a place of rest away from Versailles. It was built by Jules Hardouin-Mansart from 1687 to 1688 . This building was designed with fine types of marble and was called Trianon de Marbre ; it kept this name until the neighboring Petit Trianon was built . Here the king retired with his favorite Madame de Maintenon , here he could relax before the etiquette and the court ceremony. The visit to Trianon, unlike that of Versailles, was not permitted to everyone, and an invitation from the king was an extraordinary honor.

Even after the death of Louis XIV - after a short period of vacancy - the castle was one of the preferred places of residence of his successors. Only with the construction of the Petit Trianon did the great role model lose its importance, the court now gathered around Marie Antoinette , who later shaped the Small Trianon for an entire era there.

Even Napoleon was referring briefly some rooms of the Grand Trianon - which he originally zudachte his mother - and had the palace and some rooms get ready for themselves after the now over a hundred years old building had become dilapidated.

In 1920 the Treaty of Trianon was signed here, part of the Versailles Treaty , which was supposed to seal the end of the First World War .

Architecture of the castle

Grand Trianon, The Court of Honor

The Grand Trianon extends as a multi-wing structure north of the Great Canal . The focal point is the peristyle , a columned hall from which the individual building sections lead away. The open hall with a view of the gardens was built in this form at the direct instigation of the king, who requested a view from the courtyard into the gardens and intended to use the room as an airy dining room in summer. During the 19th century, the peristyle was temporarily closed with large French windows, but today it appears again in its original image. The balustrades that hide the flat roof of the Grand Trianon were decorated with statues, vases and trophies until the French Revolution , but these ornaments were looted and never restored.

With the exception of the north wing, the so-called Trianon sous Bois , the entire building is one-story and gives an impression of space and generosity through the large arched windows. The Trianon sous Bois wing is connected to the symmetrical garden facade of the Grand Trianon by a long gallery building and was, among other things, the preferred place of residence of Liselotte von der Pfalz .

During the time that the castle was inhabited, changes were made to the furnishings again and again, some rooms still have their baroque decoration, but especially the rooms inhabited by Napoléon have been redesigned in the style of the Empire .

An apartment for the French head of state has been set up in the Trianon sous Bois since the reign of Charles de Gaulle . The castle is still used by the French government for receptions and similar events, but is open to visitors.

Garden of the Trianon

Grand Trianon, view over the garden to the peristyle

Around the castle are the baroque gardens , which underline the importance of the Trianon as a garden castle . At the time of the Sun King , the flowers in the Broderieparterres were not planted directly in the ground, but a system of clay pots was developed which made it possible to replace the plants with others in a short time. In this way, the floral decorations could be completely replaced within a few hours.

The gardens go directly into the park of the Petit Trianon and with this form a separate area within the Versailles palace park.

literature

Web links

Commons : Grand Trianon  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 48 ° 48 ′ 53 ″  N , 2 ° 6 ′ 17 ″  E