Monday, May 27, 2019

About the Palace of Versailles

From Vogue:
As early as 1661, Louis XIV entrusted Andre le Notre with the design and development of the famous Versailles gardens, which would later be known as a model of exceptional landscaping across the world. With the help of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, a member of the King’s cabinet, and later the architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart, tasked with the Orangery, Le Notre got to work. He was entrusted to design the layout of the gardens, to draw the numerous statues and fountains, and with the huge burden of leveling, planting, and routing of trees from several provinces in France. The project took 40 years in all to complete, and the gardens require replanting every hundred years or so in order to maintain their integrity and beauty. During a storm in December of 1999, some 10,000 to 20,000 trees were split or uprooted, including 80% of the rarest species, and two Virginia tulip trees planted by Marie-Antoinette herself. (Read more.)
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