Versailles

:This article is about the city of Versailles. For the Château de Versailles, see Palace of Versailles. For other uses, see Versailles (disambiguation).

A seat of power

Versailles was the unofficial capital city of the kingdom of France from May 1682 (King Louis XIV moves the court and government permanently to Versailles) until September 1715 (death of Louis XIV and regency, with the regent Philippe d'Orléans returning to Paris), and then again from June 1722 (King Louis XV returns to Versailles permanently) to October 1789 (King Louis XVI forced to move back to Paris by the people of Paris). During the entire period, Paris remained the official capital city of France, and the official royal palace was the Palace of the Louvre, but in practice government affairs were conducted from Versailles, and Versailles was regarded as the real capital city.

Related Topics:
Louis XIV - Philippe d'Orléans - Paris - Louis XV - Louis XVI - Palace of the Louvre

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Versailles became again the unofficial capital city of France from March 1871 (French government takes refuge in Versailles due to the insurrection of the Paris Commune) until November 1879 (newly elected left-wing republicans relocate government and parliament to Paris).

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Versailles was made the préfecture (capital) of the Seine-et-Oise département at its inception in March 1790 (Seine-et-Oise had approximately 400,000 inhabitants at its creation). By the 1960s, with the growth of the Paris suburbs, the Seine-et-Oise département had reached almost 3 million inhabitants and was deemed too large and ungovernable, and thus it was split into three départements in January 1968. Versailles was made the préfecture of the Yvelines département, the largest chunk of the former Seine-et-Oise département. At the 1999 census the Yvelines département had 1,354,304 inhabitants.

Related Topics:
Préfecture - Seine-et-Oise - Département - Yvelines

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Versailles is also the seat of a Roman Catholic diocese (bishopric) which was created in 1790. The diocese of Versailles depends from the archdiocese of Paris.

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In 1975 Versailles was made the seat of a Court of Appeal, whose jurisdiction covers the western suburbs of Paris.

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Since 1972, Versailles was made the seat of one of France's 26 académies of the Ministry of National Education, in charge of supervising all the elementary schools and high schools of the western suburbs of Paris.

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Versailles is also an important node for the French army, a tradition going back to the monarchy, with for instance the military camp of Sartory and other institutions.

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