The Hall of Mirrors

The Palace of Versailles has many magnificent rooms--the Venus Drawing-Room, the War drawing room, the Peace drawing room...lots of drawing rooms, not to mention the chambers of the king and queen. But perhaps the most famous of any rooms in the Palace is the Hall of Mirrors.

It is exactly what it sounds like...a long room with loads of mirrors! And it is, as you can see, every bit as pretty as one might think it would be.

I showed you several ceiling paintings yesterday. Just to give you an idea, the painting on the ceiling of the Hall of Mirrors was started in 1661 and finished in 1678. 

The king would pass through the Hall of Mirrors every day on his way to the chapel. It was said that the mirrors were built to reflect the gardens, which can be seen through the windows running the opposite side of the Hall.

The Hall was used for many things--large receptions, presentations by the king (they would move the throne in here for those), and of course, royal weddings! Wouldn't that be just beautiful?

All along the Hall are light fixtures like these. Today they have electric lights in them, but back in the days of King Louis XIV and his grandson, King Louis XVI, they would have held candles. All that candlelight, bouncing off the mirrors...lovely!

And of course, there are statues everywhere. Don't really know who this is supposed to be--all we know is that it is a woman with a deer and a bow-and-arrow. Knowing King Louis, she is probably a figure from mythology.

I think that the magnificence of the Palace of Versailles can truly be seen in the Hall of Mirrors. It truly is something out of a fairy tale--something fit for a king!