From the time of Louis XIV until the French Revolution, the Palace of Versailles, its Gardens and its Small Park were surounded by a much bigger park or Hunting Grounds. This enormous game reserve, which contained many villages, was surounded by a 40 kilometre wall and was gained access to by 24 doors. 1
Several of these doors were built on the exact same design by the king’s architect Jules Hardouin Mansart. Later in the 18 th century, almost all these doors received additional constructions, in the form of more confortable rooms and even farm buildings, as the guards were no longer satisfied with the cramped single room in which their fathers and their families had lived in.
We started a couple of years ago on the restauration and reconstruction of one of these doors, the Paris Door in Villepreux. 2 The door stands at some 8 kilometres west of the Palace.
This is the door at night as seen from the east, when standing inside the hunting grounds.
As you can see, still more work is needed on one of the farm buildings on the right. On the left stands the new accomodations built for the guard in the 18th century.
Here is the door from outside the Great Park, as you would see it if you were coming from the west and about to enter (or not!) the grounds of the Palace of Versailles.
Mind you if you were on foot, still 8 kilometres to go before reaching the Palace itself!
Well, this was more of a teaser than an extensive visit of the buildings, I hope I will be able to show you more soon!
1. See the article : Pour les plaisirs du roi : les métamorphoses de la porte de Trappes (in French) by Laurent Condamy and Julien Lacaze in Versalia, Revue de la Société des Amis de Versailles n°15, 2012.
2. We had the idea of rebuilding the Villepreux door after having read the article mentioned above, which tells the story of another door of the Great Park.
