King Louis XIV of France constructed the Palace of Versailles in the seventeenth century. Today, it has become one of the world’s most sought-after tourist destination. Initially, King Louis XIII had built a small cottage in Versailles, where he used to reside while hunting in the neighboring forests of Versailles. Louis XIV, who was the son of Louis XIII, was a more frequent visitor to this cottage at Versailles. Louis XIV assumed complete control of the French kingdom after the death of his Prime Minister, Cardinal Mazarin, and he decided to make several changes in his administration. One of these changes included the transfer of the courts from Paris to the outskirts in Versailles.

Louis XIV started developing the first phase of the palace in the year 1664, with a big celebration for which several hundreds of guests were invited. This development included the landscaping of the old gardens and was completed by the year 1668. The second phase of the palace was started subsequently during the year 1669, which mainly consisted of the apartments for the King and the Queen. Major designing work was done by Le Brun.

The old hunting cottage of Louis III was now fully enclosed from three directions by new developments, which included the two huge apartments for the King and Queen. One side had the Grand appartement du Roi, other had the Grand appartement de la reine. The third side had a huge terrace on which the famous Hall of Mirrors was constructed. The Grand appartement du Roi and Grand appartement de la reine consisted of suite of rooms aligned in a single line for special guests. Each of these rooms was devoted to various astronomical bodies that were symbolized with the respective Roman Gods considered to be the masters of these bodies. The second phase took four years to complete and was ready in 1672.

The third phase of the Palace of Versailles began in the year 1678, almost six years after completion of the second phase. In this phase, the King directed architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart to build the Hall of Mirrors, along with further development of the Grand appartement du Roi and Grand appartement de la reine in order to make the suite suidiv for the residence of the two princess. The new huge gardens, which can still be seen today, were also created by the team of Le Brun and Le Notre. While this phase was nearing completion, King Louis XIV shifted his court to the Palace of Versailles in 1682. By this period, France had become a dominating power in Europe.

After these three major phases, there were minor developments at Versailles. The Palace of Versailles, however, experienced some harsh situations during the French Revolution and was finally officially declared to be a museum in the year 1837.