Versailles ( vair-SY, vur-SY; French: [vɛʁsɑj] ) is a commune in the department of Yvelines, Île-de-France. It is known for the Château de Versailles and the Gardens of Versailles, the latter of which is designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Located in the western suburbs of the French capital, 17.1 km (10.6 mi) from the centre of Paris, Versailles is a wealthy suburb of Paris with a service-based economy and is a major tourist destination. As of 2023, its population was 84,095, down from a peak of 94,145 in 1975.
A new town founded by order of King Louis XIV, Versailles was the de facto capital of the Kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789, before becoming the cradle of the French Revolution. After having lost its status as a royal city, it became the préfecture (regional capital) of the Seine-et-Oise département in 1790, then of Yvelines in 1968. It is also a Roman Catholic diocese.
Versailles is historically known for numerous treaties such as the Treaty of Paris, which ended the American Revolution, and the Treaty of Versailles after World War I. Today, the Congress of France – the name given to the body created when both houses of the French Parliament, the National Assembly and the Senate – gathers in the Château de Versailles to vote on revisions to the Constitution.
The etymology of Versailles is thought to be from the Latin word versare, meaning "to keep turning, turn over and over", an expression used in medieval times for ploughed lands, cleared lands (lands that had been repeatedly "turned over"). This word formation is similar to Latin seminare ("to sow"), which gave French semailles ("sowings", "sown seeds").
During the Revolution of 1789, city officials proposed to rename Versailles Berceau-de-la-Liberté ("Cradle of Liberty"), but the proposal was retracted due to the objections of the majority of the population.
From May 1682, when Louis XIV moved the court and government permanently to Versailles, until his death in September 1715, Versailles was the unofficial capital of the kingdom of France. For the next seven years, during the Régence of Philippe d'Orléans, the royal court of the young King Louis XV was at first in Paris, while the Regent governed from his Parisian residence, the Palais-Royal. Versailles was again the unofficial capital of France from June 1722, when Louis XV returned to Versailles, until October 1789, when a Parisian mob forced Louis XVI and the royal family to move to Paris. Versailles again became the unofficial capital of France from March 1871, when Adolphe Thiers' government took refuge in Versailles, fleeing the insurrection of the Paris Commune, until November 1879, when the newly elected government and parliament returned to Paris. During the various periods when government affairs were conducted from Versailles, Paris remained the official capital of France.
Versailles was made the préfecture of the Seine-et-Oise département at its inception in March 1790 (at which time Seine-et-Oise had approximately 420,000 inhabitants). By the 1960s, with the growth of the Paris suburbs, the Seine-et-Oise had reached more than 2 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. At the 2017 census the Yvelines had 1,438,266 inhabitants.
The Hôtel de Ville has been the meeting place of the town council since 1900.
Versailles is the seat of a Roman Catholic diocese (bishopric) which was created in 1790. The diocese of Versailles is subordinate to the archdiocese of Paris.
In 1975, Versailles was made the seat of a Court of Appeal whose jurisdiction covers the western suburbs of Paris.
Since 1972, Versailles has been the seat of one of France's 30 nationwide académies (districts) of the Ministry of National Education. The académie de Versailles, the largest of France's thirty académies by its number of pupils and students, is in charge of supervising all the elementary schools and high schools of the western suburbs of Paris.
Versailles is also an important node for the French army, a tradition going back to the monarchy with, for instance, the military camp of Satory and other institutions.
Versailles is located 17.1 km (10.6 mi) west-southwest of the centre of Paris. The city sits on an elevated plateau, 130 to 140 metres (430 to 460 ft) above sea level (whereas the elevation of the centre of Paris is only 33 m (108 ft) above sea level), surrounded by wooded hills: in the north the forests of Marly and Fausses-Reposes, and in the south the forests of Satory and Meudon.
The city (commune) of Versailles has an area of 26.18 km2 (10.11 sq mi; 6,470 acres), which is a quarter of the area of the city of Paris. In 1989, Versailles had a population density of 3,344/km2 (8,660/mi2), whereas Paris had a density of 20,696/km2 (53,600/mi2).
Born out of the will of a king, Versailles has a rational and symmetrical grid of streets. By the standards of the 18th century, it was a very modern European city. It was also used as a model for the building of Washington, D.C., by Pierre Charles L'Enfant.
Versailles has an oceanic climate (Köppen: Cfb). Summer days are usually warm and pleasant with average temperatures between 15 and 25 °C (59 and 77 °F), and a fair amount of sunshine. In the winter, sunshine is scarce; days are cool, and nights are cold but generally above freezing with low temperatures around 3 °C (37 °F). Light night frosts are however quite common, but the temperature seldom dips below −5 °C (23 °F). Snow falls every year, but rarely stays on the ground. The city sometimes sees light snow or flurries with or without accumulation.
The name of Versailles appears for the first time in a medieval document dated 1038. In the feudal system of medieval France, the lords of Versailles came directly under the king of France, with no intermediary overlords between them and the king; yet they were not very important lords. At the end of the 11th century, the village consisted of a castle and the Saint Julien church.
Its farming activity and its location on the road from Paris to Dreux and Normandy brought wealth to the village, culminating at the end of the 13th century, the so-called "century of Saint Louis", famous for the prosperity of northern France and the building of Gothic cathedrals. The 14th century brought the Black Death and the Hundred Years' War, and with them, death and destruction. At the end of the Hundred Years' War in the 15th century, the village started to recover, with a population of only 100 inhabitants.