Royal Chapel of the Château de Versailles

Completed at the end of the reign of Louis XIV, in 1710, the Royal Chapel is the fifth (and final) chapel to have stood on the chateau site since the time of Louis XIII.

The Sun King's last construction site

Jules Hardouin-Mansart suggested the plan to the King in 1699 but the King's First Architect died in 1708 and it was his brother-in-law Robert De Cotte who completed the work.
Dedicated to Saint Louis, patron saint of the King and ancestor of the royal house, the Chapel echoes the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris that he founded.
The two-storey interior elevation follows the usual layout of Palatine chapels, but its architecture, with the powerful colonnade on the first floor, is ostensibly antiquity-inspired.

The king only came here for the great religious festivals when he took communion, for the ceremonies of the Order of the Holy Spirit, for baptisms and for the marriages of the royal children celebrated here from 1710 to 1789. It was also here that the future King Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette tied the knot in 1770.

The music season that takes place here today involves over 40 sacred music concerts throughout the year. Works by the greatest composers — Handel's Dixit Dominus, Messiah, Oratorio, and Magnificat; Bach's Cantatas and Passion; Pergolesi's Stabat Mater; Charpentier's Te Deum — still resound under the vaults and gilding of this architectural jewel!

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