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What did Versailles look like before Louis XIV? How did the small hunting lodge of Louis XIII become the largest palace in Europe? What embellishments did the young Sun King want in his palace of festivities and amusements? Did you know that the Hall of Mirrors was originally a terrace overlooking the gardens?

The palace of Versailles is a unique place, a royal residence, a history museum and a Republican palace. But are you familiar with all the key developments of its long history? To accompany the six millions visitors from all over the world who discover it each year and enable them to better understand how it grew over the centuries, the Palace of Versailles, in partnership with Google, decided to create the Palace History Gallery.

The Palace History Gallery, which opens to the public on 14 June 2012, consists of eleven rooms which explain to visitors – as a prologue to their visit to the Grand Apartments – the richly varied functions of the places they are about to explore. The Gallery combines the presentation of the collections of Versailles with physical scale models and striking 3D reconstructions.

This presentation is backed up by a website dedicated to the history of the Palace – www.versailles3d.com – which puts at the service of the project the latest technological tools developed by Google’s engineers.

The Palace History Gallery and the website www.versailles3d.com are essential educational and cultural mediation tools designed to improve the understanding of Versailles by its visitors and by all those interested in this ancient residence of the kings of France.