Subsidiary structures of the Palace of Versailles

As an ensemble of buildings related to, yet removed from, the Palace of Versailles, they represent architectural masterworks of the 17th and 18th centuries that have inspired architects to this day.

In response to increased interest in zoology—and especially with regard to Aristotelian theology, which experienced a renaissance through the works of Claude Perrault; as well as the passion for the exotic, Louis XIV ordered the construction of the Ménagerie in 1662.

Comprising a complex of building that featured a central octagonal two-story pavilion, the Ménagerie was a favorite destination for visitors and courtiers.

In Denis Diderot's Encyclopédie, Louis-Jean-Marie Daubenton recounts a story in which Louis XIV took delivery of an African elephant as a gift from King Afonso VI of Portugal.

The elephant lived in the menagerie at Versailles for thirteen years and only grew a further foot, no doubt because the change in climate and food had stunted its growth; so it measured just seven and a half feet when the gentlemen of the Royal Academy of Sciences carried out their description of it.

Today, the Pavilion de la Lanterne, the only surviving vestige of the Ménagerie, is being restored providing us with a glimpse of the cynegetic decoration of this lost Versailles masterpiece.

[3] Located at the northern end of the transverse arm of the Grand Canal, the Trianon de Porcelaine formed a pendant to the Ménagerie.

Designed by Louis Le Vau and François d'Orbay and built between 1669 and 1670 as a pleasure pavilion for Louis XIV and his mistress, the marquise de Montespan, the central pavilion and its four smaller buildings were covered with blue and white earthenware (rather than porcelain, which had not yet been made in Europe) tiles in imitation of porcelain tiles.

[6] Constructed of pink Languedoc marble between 1687 and 1689 in an Italianate-style, this two-story structure succeeds & mdash; architecturally and stylistically— where the chateau of Versailles fails.

Where Versailles' decor extolled the heroic actions of Louis XIV in the guise of Augustus, Alexander, and Apollo, this didactic component is not evident in the décor of the Grand Trianon.

The style of the Grand Trianon reflected a more relaxed atmosphere and life-style that was removed from the constraints of protocol and etiquette found at Versailles.

[9] During the reign of Louis XV, the Grand Trianon underwent minor modifications: the theater was removed and a suite of rooms opening onto the jardin du roi was redecorated for the Marquise de Pompadour.

Regarded by opponents as a folly of Marie Antoinette, the Hameau was a model bucolic village and farm in which advances in agronomy and animal husbandry were practiced.

[12] Owing to the association with Marie Antoinette's perceived excesses—such as the construction of a theater where she and her friends acted to private audiences—the Petit Trianon and the Hameau were pillaged during the Revolution.

In more recent times, the Petit Trianon and the Hameau de la reine have been undergoing an aggressive restoration program that is seeking to return them to their state when Marie Antoinette left them in October 1789.

Since 2007, La Lanterne has also served as a retreat for the French president, on the grounds of its seclusion and its relative anonymity, thus providing a level of security that is difficult to maintain at the Grand Trianon due to the hordes of tourists visiting the building and gardens.

However, André Malraux, then Minister of Culture stayed there between 1962 and 1969 after his apartment in Boulogne-Billancourt was destroyed by an assassination attempt by the Organisation armée secrète.