THE BROCHURE SERIES |
| PLATE XXVII | CHATEAU, PETIT TRIANON |
THE | ||
| 1900. | APRIL | No. 4. |
THE PETIT TRIANON: VERSAILLES.
During the first years of his reign,Louis the XIV. of France resided,as his predecessors had, at St. Germainin summer; but for some reason—itis alleged that it was because the windowsof the palace commanded a view of St.Denis, the royal mausoleum—he conceiveda dislike to it, and resolved to build anothersummer palace for himself at some spotnot far from Paris. Why he chose Versaillesis incomprehensible.
Whatever may have been the motive,however, he decided to erect upon thisdesolate, waterless and uninhabited site avast palace to be surrounded by a park.
The cost of accomplishing this projectwas fearful, not in money alone (althoughthis was more than one thousand millionfrancs), but in human life. In 1681 twenty-twothousand soldiers and six thousandhorses were employed on the work, and sounhealthy was the site that the workmendied by thousands. Writing in 1767,Madame de Sévigné says: "The King is inhaste that Versailles should be finished;but it would seem that God is unwilling.It is almost impossible to continue thework owing to the fearful mortality amongthe workmen. The corpses are fetchedaway by cartfuls during the night,—nightbeing chosen that they who still live maynot be terrified into revolt by the sight."But no difficulty, nor the pestilence, northe ruin of the treasury was allowed tointerfere with the King's pleasure. Thepalace rose; the stately gardens, peopledwith statues, spread about it; and a royalcity sprang up where before had been onlya desolate forest; and, after 1682, Versaillesbecame the permanent headquarters of theCourt.
In the immense park, some three-quartersof a mile northwest from theterraces of the palace, Louis XIV. built alittle palace to gratify Madame de Maintenon,which, from the fact that it stoodon the site of the parish of Trianon, whichwas demolished to make a site for it, andbecause its façade was ornamented withporcelain plaques of blue and white faienceware, was called the "Trianon de Porcelaine";but in 1687 Louis, who had as Saint-Simonsaid, "a rage for building," demolishedthis frail structure and replaced itwith another, designed by Mansart, whichwe now know as the "Grand Trianon."This building was the King's delight for afew years, but after 1700 he wearied of theplaything, and turned