Versailles

France

Versailles is a town about 19 km west of Paris, France. Louis XIII built a hunting lodge there in 1623, and Louis XIV expanded it into a vast palace, moving the royal court and government there in 1682; apart from the Regency years, they remained until 1789. In the 1690s the churchman François Fénelon served at court as tutor to the king's grandson, the Duke of Burgundy, before losing favour in the Quietist controversy. The palace later became a museum of French history, the Treaty of Versailles ending the First World War was signed in its Hall of Mirrors in 1919, and the palace and park are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.