Le Petite Trianon, (Versailles, Paris); 1762, Early 19th Century Architecture in Europe - Faheema Ismail



King Louis had been working on his garden for over 10 years when he decided to commission a new mansion by the royal architect, Ange-Jacque Gabriel. This new estate was meant to be big enough to house the king and some of his following, and as he did this, he strayed from the classic Rococo and Gothic architecture and returned to the Greek Style that was becoming popular. As a result he made a large statement in the Neo-Classical movement.             
Built in 1768, the Trianon estate was built for King Louis XV and Queen Marie-Antoinette and was used as an escape from the palace life. In 1774, Louis XV came down with the pox and shortly died after. Thus brought about the reign of Louis XVI and his newly wed wife, Marie Antoinette, and as a gift to his beloved, he gave her the Petite Trianon and its estate. With her newly acquired play house, she started redecorating and made it her own.  This included redesigning the garden and courts in favor of styles more in fashion. Instead of gussying it up for parties as most royalty would do in the era, she chose to make it her sanctuary away from the palace and away from the stresses of being a high class noble that normally got everything she wanted and had servants ready at her beck and call. What a horrible life she lived, she definitely needed a break. Since this was her home away from home, she was the only one allowed there and anyone else needed a personal invitation from her highness, it was rumored that that even included King Louis XVI.
The surrounding area of the Estate was adorned with a wall and gate as well as grills that made the area feel secure and guarded from the outside world.  These additions from the queen aided in showing her need to shut off the world while keeping an air of refinement. There was even a room called the “Moving Mirror Room” where a system of wooden panels were able to move to cover the entirety of the windows within the room when needed. The entire estate was a roughly a square, with about 86 feet on a side. Due to its incredibly thick stone walls, a large amount of the estate in unusable. The estate consisted of a large dining hall, music room, two smaller rooms for entertaining guests, a bedroom suite, a baker’s dozen of guest bedrooms, and an entry hall on the main floor. All reasonable for royalty wanting to act as an insanely rich noble rather than as royalty surrounded by servants.
While it was shaped like a cube, Ange-Jacque Gabriel wanted to keep the design anything but simple. He did this by varying the design of each façade while keeping five windows per floor. The East Façade looked of over the king’s botanical garden and is the tamest. The West Façade looked over the French Gardens and was adorned with four Corinthian columns that projected outwards ever so slightly. The South Façade over looked the courtyard and had four pilasters that accentuated the three central bays. And finally, the North Facade repeats this design only on the first floor. All of these together created a feeling of united elegance.
The estate was turned into a hostel during the French revolution and was restored to its former glory by Napoleon for his sister and then his second wife. Then in 1867, the Empress Eugenie, declared the Petite Trianon to be a museum in memory of Marie- Antoinette





http://en.chateauversailles.fr/discover/estate/estate-trianon/petit-trianon#buy-your-ticket
 "The Petit Trianon; Palace of Versailles". Chataeuversailles.fr. Retrieved 2017-07-09

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