Versailles is not only a palace: it is a purpose-built royal capital of 1671 grid streets, market quarters and parish churches. Three days trace the site from its medieval villages through the Revolution's opening act to the treaty rooms of the 20th century.
Louis XIII's 1624 brick-and-stone hunting lodge survives intact here — Louis XIV enveloped it rather than razing it. The black-and-white marble paving marks the original courtyard; the gilded gate is a 2008 reconstruction.
Jules Hardouin-Mansart's 1684 parish church served the royal family itself; baptisms, marriages and burials of Louis XIV's household were entered in registers kept here. Free entry, open roughly 08:30–19:00 daily.
A 1751 hôtel particulier holding Versailles' own history: town plans, Revolution-era relics, and rooms devoted to Charlotte Corday and Marat. Reopened in 2023 after full renovation. Open Tue–Sun 14:00–18:00, closed Mondays.
The village of Montreuil predates the palace by centuries; its parish, documented from the 1100s, was rebuilt in 1770 by Louis-François Trouard in severe neoclassical style. Madame Élisabeth worshipped here from 1783.
Louis-Philippe gutted the princes' apartments in 1837 to build a 120-metre gallery of 33 battle canvases dedicated 'to all the glories of France' — the decision that saved the abandoned palace from demolition.
In this 1686 real-tennis court on 20 June 1789, 577 deputies of the Third Estate swore not to disband until France had a constitution. The bare hall holds Luc-Olivier Merson's replica of David's unfinished canvas.
Louis XIV's pink-marble retreat of 1687, later de Gaulle's official residence for state guests. The Treaty of Trianon, which dismembered the Kingdom of Hungary, was signed in the Cotelle gallery on 4 June 1920.
Hardouin-Mansart's twin royal stables of 1679–82 stabled some 600 horses and faced the palace across the Place d'Armes. The Grande Écurie now houses the Galerie des Carrosses and the Académie équestre.
Richard Mique built Marie-Antoinette's twelve-cottage farm village in 1783 around an artificial lake, with a working dairy, mill and vegetable plots. The Queen's House and its rustic staircase reopened after restoration in 2018.
The quarter Louis XIV laid out in 1671 to house palace suppliers still trades on the same square; the four covered halls date from 1841. Market mornings are Tuesday, Friday and Sunday, with permanent shops the rest of the week.
Jean-Baptiste de La Quintinie drained a marsh to build the King's Kitchen Garden in 1678–83: nine hectares, 5,000 fruit trees and walled terraces engineered to force figs and asparagus out of season for Louis XIV's table.
Four squares of low 1737 timber market huts, built to lodge traders in the king's new southern quarter, survive as boutiques and cafés around the 1754 cathedral by Jacques Hardouin-Mansart de Sagonne.