King Louis the 13th came here with his father Henry 4th to hunt on its grounds. In 1623 he decides to build a hunting manor house where he could hideaway from his court, being shy and secretive. King Louis the 14th starts the new construction of Versailles in 1660, year of his marriage with Maria Theresa, infant of Spain.

For the next 25 years he improves the château with the help of his architect "Le Vau" and will enlarge it during the remaining course of his long life in order to host the court and the royal government.
He formally moved the court there on May 6th 1682.
Jules Hardouin Mansart took over the supervision of the huge construction site and the indoor decoration was supervised by Charles Lebrun.

In 1685, more than 3500 workers worked on the construction and decoration of the château. It was guarded by 10,000 noblemen and the service was handled by a 3000 men and women staff. The park and its "French" gardens were the creation of Le Notre: this master garden designer realized from1661 to 1700 the most elaborate gardens of its time: the combination of canals, fountains, remote hideaways and grand alleys are part of this sophisticated, sometimes secretive, outdoors paradise.
The Royal chapel, the last construction work under Louis the 14th reign, was finally completed in 1710.

Versailles was designed as a showcase of "the century of lights " French know how and inspired European kings and emperors for the construction of their own castles.
King Louis the 15th reintegrates Versailles as the site of the French government in 1722. It had been left aside at Louis the 14th death in 1715. Versailles carried on then as the center of French political life until the 1789 revolution, under short-lived Louis the 16th reign.

It was finally transformed into a living Museum under the so-called "Citizen King" Louis Philippe in the mid 19th century.

Most furniture had been auction sold during the Revolution and the nearly abandoned buildings had been damaged during the 19th and 20th century wars.
Between 1925 and 1936, John D Rockefeller donated his time and money to restore the rundown main building, the roofs, the Trianons and the Gardens.
Gerald Van Der kemps, from 1953 and on gathered many donations, mostly from the U.S, to restore the Hall of the mirrors as well as the Queen and King formal bedrooms.

After the major 1990 storm which damaged a lot of the trees and outdoor arrangements in Versailles Park, Mrs. Catherine Hamilton, member of the Association "FRIENDS OF VERSAILLES" gathered some of her American friends to carry on the torch of American Versailles donators and sponsors in order to restore the damaged gardens. It took her 7 years of continuous efforts to get the 4 million dollars needed for this work.

  Under her supervision, on June 14 12004, after two years of continuous renovation work, was inaugurated the "Three Fountains garden hideaway", illustration of one of the original 15 outdoor salons designed within the Park and used as hideaways.

Originally created by le Notre between 1677 and 1679, it got its name from a three level succession of terraced fountain basins linked through a succession of cascades and rocks.
It had been abandoned and was lovingly restored according to original designs.
It is a living proof of the dedication of the Association " the Friends of Versailles" as they compiled donations from over 600 American donators, seeking sponsorship from large corporations such as Cartier, American Airlines or FedEx.