Hall of Mirrors (Palace of Versailles)

The Hall of Mirrors (French:Grande Galerie or Galerie des Glaces) is the central gallery of the Palace of Versailles and is suspected of being one of the most famous rooms in the world.

As the principal and most remarkable feature of King Louis XIV of France’s third building campaign of the Palace of Versailles (1678–1684), construction of the Hall of Mirrors began in 1678 (Kimball, 1940; Nolhac, 1901; 1925; Marie, 1968; 1977; Verlet , 1985). To provide for the Hall of Mirrors as well as the salon de la guerre and the salon de la paix, which connect the grand appartement du roi with the grand appartement de la reine, architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart appropriated three rooms from each apartment as well as the terrace that separated the two apartments (Marie, 1968; 1977l Verlet, 1985a). The principal feature of this famous hall is the seventeen mirror-clad arches that reflect the seventeen arcaded windows that overlook the gardens. Each arch contains twenty-one mirrors with a total complement of 357 used in the decoration of the galerie des glaces (Verlet, 1985a). The arches themselves are fixed between marble pilasters whose capitals depict the symbols of France.[citation needed] These gilded bronze capitals include the fleur-de-lys and the Gallic cockerel or rooster. Many of the other attributes of the Hall of Mirrors were lost to war for financial purposes, such as the silver table pieces and guéridons were melted by order of Louis XIV in 1689 to finance the War of the League of Augsburg, or the Nine Years' War (Dangeau, 1854-6; Josephson, 1926; Mercure Galant, 1682; Cosnac, 1984; Verlet, 1985a).

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