[4] A new town founded at the will 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.

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, meet – gathers in the Château de Versailles to vote on revisions to the Constitution.

For the next seven years, during the Régence of Philippe d'Orléans, the royal court of the young King Louis XV was the first in Paris, while the Regent governed from his Parisian residence, the Palais-Royal.

[7] By the 1960s, with the growth of the Paris suburbs, the Seine-et-Oise had reached more than 2 million inhabitants,[7] and was deemed too large and ungovernable, and thus it was split into three départements in January 1968.

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.

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.

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).

In 1561, Martial de Loménie, secretary of state for finances under King Charles IX, became lord of Versailles.

Several times during the 1610s, the de Gondis invited King Louis XIII to hunt in the large forests around Versailles.

In 1624, he acquired more and entrusted Philibert Le Roy with the construction of a small hunting lodge of red bricks and stone with a slate roof.

This small château was the site of one of the historical events that took place during the reign of Louis XIII, on 10 November 1630, when, on the Day of the Dupes, the party of the queen mother was defeated and Richelieu was confirmed as Prime minister.

It was 20 years later, in 1661, when Louis XIV commenced his personal reign, that the young king showed interest in Versailles.

There were only two conditions to acquire a lot: 1- a token tax of 5 shillings (5 sols) per arpent of land should be paid every year ($0.03 per 1,000 sq ft (93 m2) per year in 2005 US dollars); 2- a house should be built on the lot according to the plans and models established by the Surintendant des Bâtiments du Roi (architect in chief of the royal demesne).

The plans provided for a city built symmetrically with respect to the Avenue de Paris (which starts from the entrance of the castle).

The old village and the Saint Julien church were demolished to make room for buildings housing the administrative services managing the daily life in the castle.

The members of the Third Estate took the Tennis Court Oath on 20 June 1789, and the National Constituent Assembly abolished feudalism on 4 August 1789.

During this turbulent time, Jean-François Coste, who had also been the chief physician of the King's Armies, was appointed mayor of Versailles.

Louis-Philippe, who took the throne in the July Revolution of 1830, transformed the palace into a National Museum dedicated to "all the glories of France" in 1837.

On 18 January 1871, the victorious Germans proclaimed the king of Prussia, Wilhelm I, emperor of Germany in the very Hall of Mirrors of the castle, in an attempt to take revenge for the conquests of Louis XIV two centuries earlier.

Eventually, however, left-wing republicans won a string of parliamentary elections, defeating the parties supporting a restoration of the monarchy, and the new majority decided to relocate the government to Paris in November 1879.

In the present times, the centre of the town has kept its very bourgeois atmosphere, while more middle-class neighbourhoods have developed around the train stations and on the outskirts of the city.

The Potager du roi is a kitchen garden created under Louis XIV to supply fruits and vegetables to the Court.

The town also has other points of cultural notability; in recent times, its position as an affluent suburb of Paris has meant that it forms a part of the Paris artistic scene, and musical groups such as Phoenix, Air, Fuzati, and Daft Punk have some link to the city,[16] as does the director Michel Gondry.

The headquarters of the Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines University is located in the city, as well as the ISIPCA, a post-graduate school in perfume, cosmetics products and food flavour formulation.

Versailles is also served by two stations on the Transilien Paris-Saint-Lazare suburban rail line: Versailles-Rive Droite and Montreuil.