Archaeological excavations at the Palace of Versailles have revealed the complex architectural evolution of the Queen’s and Dauphin’s Courts.
The Palace of Versailles was commissioned by King Louis XIV, in Versailles, west of the city centre of Paris, France. Initially a château used as a hunting lodge, Louis XIV redeveloped the site into a royal palace over several expansion phases from 1661 to 1715.
Louis XIV’s successors, Louis XV and Louis XVI, largely left Versailles as they inherited it and focused mainly on the palace’s interiors.
Recent excavations of the central southern wing of the palace have unearthed traces of the filled moat of architect Louis Le Vau’s 17th-century hunting lodge, as well as an intricate network of long-buried structures.
These structures include the foundations of colonnaded galleries, stone drainage systems, vaulted hydraulic passages, monumental water collectors, and semicircular vaults dating from the late 1600s.
Archaeologists from Inrap report that the density of these structures will make it possible to reconstruct the architectural evolution of this area of the palace by following a chronological timeline.
In another section of the same wing, traces of the “Le Vau Wall” were uncovered, the original garden-facing facade, along with ceramic fragments associated with early royal occupation, including pieces of imported Chinese porcelain.
Excavations also found the remnants of a large circular basin that once stood at the centre of the original Great Courtyard between 1668 and 1690. The basin space was later divided by the addition of a new pavilion extending the Queen’s apartments.
In the area of the North Terrace, archaeologists unearthed filled hollow structures containing sculptural fragments and pits containing mother-of-pearl and shell debris, believed to be refuse from the demolition of the famed Tethys Grotto, which once occupied the site before the construction of the North Wing in 1685.
A small, vaulted sump and other hydraulic features further indicate the sophisticated water-management systems that once served the palace’s fountains and gardens.
Perhaps most striking was the discovery of a 17-metre-long foundation wall composed of reused baluster stones, likely salvaged from an earlier railing or staircase. Though initially suspected to come from the demolished grotto, current analysis suggests a different origin.
The wall may correspond to an 18th-century barrier shown in designs by Ange-Jacques Gabriel, separating public garden spaces from carriage routes leading to the royal apartments.
“Beyond its good state of preservation, the combined interventions clearly demonstrate the stratigraphic complexity of the preserved elements. A perpetual construction site, the site has undergone constant transformations, traces of which have been recorded in the subsoil,” said Inrap.
Header Image Credit : P. Raymond
Sources : Inrap
