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Palace of Versailles 2022

The Palace of Versailles is a former royal residence located in Versailles, Yvelines, France, 12 miles west of Paris. King Louis XIII of France built a simple hunting lodge on the site in 1623 and replaced it with a small chateau from 1631-34, and, from 1661 to 1715, King Louis XIV expanded the chateau in several phases. In 1682, King Louis XIV moved his court from Paris to Versailles, making the palace the de facto capital of the Kingdom of France. Kings Louis XV and Louis XVI primarily made interior alterations to the palace, but, in 1789, the royal family was forced to return to Paris after the Women's March on Versailles at the start of the French Revolution. The palace was largely abandoned and emptied of its contents, and the population of the surrounding city plummeted. Napoleon I used the Palace of Versailles as his summer residence from 1810 to 1814, but he did not restore it. On the Bourbon Restoration in 1814-1815, the Bourbon monarchs remained in Paris, and it was not until the 1830s that meaningful repairs were made to the palace. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, the palace was occupied by the General Staff of the Prussian Army, and, on 18 January 1871, King Wilhelm I of Prussia proclaimed the creation of the German Empire in the palace's hall of mirrors. In 1979, UNESCO designated the palace and the park a World Heritage Site. The palace continues to house sessions of the French Senate (otherwise based at Luxembourg Palace) dealing with amendments to the French Constitution.

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