Square des Francine

Square des Francine is a public park created from a former watering pool for horses, situated at the edge of the Avenue de Sceaux in Versailles, France.

[1] The Francines were the family who over several generations created and oversaw the hydraulic system that ran the many fountains in the garden of Versailles during the 17th and 18th centuries.

In 1808, renovations by the architect Jean-Prospèr Marital created a drinking trough 32m in diameter surrounded by a stone wall and a paved ground for receiving horses, and a wall built to hide the view from the Palace of Versailles[3] In 1934, the field around the horse watering pool was registered in Monuments historiques (national heritage site in France) as "Abreuvoir Louis XIV" (Horse-watering-pool of Louis XIV).

[4] During World War II, the original construction was destroyed leaving only the semicircular wall seen today.

[3] Between 2012 and 2014, as part of a development plan for the Versailles Chantiers area, the semicircular wall was renovated.