The Versailles Palace is celebrating its 400th anniversary. As part of the celebration, the palace is opening doors to Queen Marie Antoinette’s secret bedroom. This means citizens and tourists can now come and enjoy the place where the queen spent her private moments. The doors are finally open, which also includes the Gold Room, after a five-year renovation.
The Versailles Palace Recreated Marie Antoinette’s Chambers
Marie Antoinette arrived very young (14 years) in Paris, in 1770, in order to marry soon to be the French king. Shortly thereafter, in 1774, she came to the throne. One of the first things she did was choose her room at The Palace of Versailles, for privacy. What is particularly interesting are the secret chambers and doors that led to her room. She put a lot of effort into the room, which was in line with her status.
In order to celebrate its four centuries of existence, the palace opened doors of her rooms for the public. After five years of renovation, citizens can enjoy the space where the queen used to spend time with her children and friends. making the rooms exactly as they were in Marie Antoinette‘s time was a difficult task. The reason for this is the insufficient number of historical data about her life.
The researchers had to work out the entire plan and program, as well as deal with documents from that period, in order to recreate the rooms as best as possible. The participants of the renovation program also dealt with the archives, in order to find any record of the materials used by the queen to make the furniture. The stories in every chamber are unique.
Where Does the Queen’s Design Inspiration Come From?
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The firstborn son of the king and queen had, as a celebration of his birth, The Méridienne Room. The room got a name from a futon which sat in the corner with the mirrors. This room’s design today includes a realistic replica of the antique lilac-hued cloth visual appeal, which is one of the most priceless in the entire castle. Likewise renovated is the nearby library.
Additionally, the monarch converted the royal family’s favorite game of pool, the Billiard Room, into housing for the court’s servants and chambermaids. Marie Antoinette‘s interest in prehistoric Egypt and Rome is responsible for the naming of The Gold Room. The toile de jouy ceilings of the room in question, in particular feature pineapples, a symbol of luxury at that point and a design reinterpreted by Pierre Frey’s contemporary home.
The public’s animosity towards the monarch subsequently diminished, despite the fact that the incidents of 1789 resulted in the queen’s hasty departure from her residence (these apartments are thought to be where she initially sheltered amid the march on Versailles). Visitors now have the incredible chance to enter Marie Antoinette’s private domain and see personally how the young monarch lived in the final years of the Ancien Régime before the French Revolution.
