The Disgusting Truth About The Palace Of Versailles

The Palace of Versailles is one of the most opulent palaces in the world—but all that glitters is not gold.

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the Palace of Versailles is one of the most opulent palaces in the world But all that glitters is not gold Though it continues to draw around 15 million tourists every year the beloved heritage site has a rich and shockingly dark history During the 17th century the Palace of Versailles was a putrid horror show There was human waste everywhere And that wasn’t even the worst part Stay tuned for more on that later If you haven’t seen the Palace of Versailles in person there’s a good chance you’ve seen its glittering hall of mirrors in a history textbook or perhaps in one of the many films that have been shot there Since 1904 it has hosted over 200 film shoots welcoming the artistic visions of directors like Vincent Minnelli and Sophia Copala among many others and for good reason There’s no doubt that the awe inspiring interiors are a feast for the eyes But to truly understand Versailles’s lasting importance we must first investigate its surprisingly humble beginnings Let’s rewind to 1623 when the king of France was Louis the 13th During Louis 13th’s reign nobody could have foreseen that one of the world’s most gorgeous estates would one day rise out of a wooded wetland In fact his court cast a disdainful eye over the site which was located close to the village of Versailles Here the king constructed a simple hunting lodge but most believed that it was unfit for royalty A cordier named Francois de Bosampierre went so far as to describe the king’s hunting lodge in a brutal way He wrote that it would not inspire vanity in even the simplest gentlemen Of course the fate of this site would ultimately inspire all the vanity in the world By the time the king passed in 1643 the hunting lodge at Versailles had been replaced by a chateau His heir four-year-old Louie I 14th was on track to becoming the famous Sun King and would eventually transform his father’s unpresuming chateau into a palace worthy of the king’s absolute power But what was the initial spark that drove Louis the 14th to commission the construction of Versailles In 1661 Louis the 14th visited the Chateau de Voy Vikon attending a lavish festival thrown by Nicholas Fauet The wealth on display was absolutely jaw-dropping and certainly raised red flags Fauquette the superintendent of finances could only afford such grandness due to his proclivity for dipping his greedy fingers into government funds Though Faucet’s corrupt dealings landed him behind bars his gorgeous festival at Volvon planted a seed in Louis the 14th’s mind One that would change the course of French history forever Louie may not have been impressed with his host but he was absolutely impressed by the overwhelming glory of Ble Become So much so that he hired those responsible for it for his own project These skilled workers included the court architect Louis Lavo the painter Shaul Le Brun and the royal gardener Andre Lenot This was the beginning of the palace of Versailles what would one day become the king’s permanent residence The end result of this project was a staggering example of French Baroque architecture As of today the palace boasts an outrageous number of rooms 2,300 to be exact which cover an area of 63,154 square me Though a guided tour of the estate makes it seem like a royal utopia one of the palace’s greatest secrets is that the conditions in the 17th century left much to be desired Let’s do a deep dive into what it was really like to live at the Palace of Versailles To live at the Palace of Versailles was to be shackled to a strict ritual Take for instance the king’s lever The custom of simply rising out of bed in the morning became a full-blown performance During the lever members of the royal family and important courters filled certain roles in preparing the king and queen for the day These tasks could be incredibly simple like holding up a mirror for the king to admire himself in or presenting him with specific articles of clothing And that wasn’t [Music] all Additionally a similar ceremony occurred at night to prepare the king for bed There was no such thing as real privacy here as an overwhelming crowd of up to 100 people would attend these proceedings One cordier confessed that one should be absent as little as possible at the king’s lever Attending these rituals could help nobles make their presence better known at court Not only did cordiers have to help the king dress but they themselves had to adhere to a rigid dress code Louis the 14th was a very particular man and wanted things done his way He insisted that members of his court wear specific garments depending on the event or time of day For instance during supper time the men had to eat while wearing their hats Overall the clothes people wore at Versailles were not comfortable at all Yes the gorgeous silks and suffocating dresses may have been pleasing to gaze upon but that didn’t mean those wearing them weren’t itching to shed all those layers However like everything about Versailles there wasn’t much one could do but play by the rules or suffer the consequences King Louis I 14th was quite passionate about his loyalty to French textile industries He believed in supporting French fashion and the artists behind the clothes So much so that when he discovered that his son had worn something not made by a French designer he set the outfit on fire With its luscious gardens and gilded rooms the Palace of Versailles may have looked like the image of wealth on the surface But the gnarly truth was that its smell didn’t always match the way it looked Take a deep breath because we’re about to learn all about hygiene at Versailles Unfortunately most 17th century French folks believed that using hot water was extremely unhealthy According to the book Louis the 14th the real sun king by Aurora von Goeth and Jules Harper the common belief was that warm water weakened the body and widened the pores thus allowing diseases to enter People everywhere not just in France found it much safer and better for the health to have a quick wash than soaking in a tub Even King Louis the 14th rarely bathed himself Reportedly he had only two baths over the course of his 76 years However not all was lost for the Sun King He at least paid some attention to his hygiene cleaning his hands in the morning using a towel to wash himself and applying perfume Then there was the sticky matter of using the toilet Like many things in Louis the 14th’s life his time on the toilet wasn’t usually private While doing his business it was quite normal for him to invite guests to accompany him And remember this wasn’t a flushing toilet but simply a special room with a chamber pot The king wasn’t the only one to have a private commode If a noble enjoyed a high spot in the court’s hierarchy they too likely had their own chamber pot However not everyone was so [Music] lucky Sure there were chamber pots but the question of whether there were enough of them to go around was another matter altogether Keep in mind that Versailles often hosted over 10,000 people This included royals nobles government workers officers and servants You see in addition to those personal chamber pots there were also latrines made available to the public but they just couldn’t keep up with the high demand And the sheer amount of sewage caused these latrines to overflow In turn this caused a putrid nightmare with the refuse soaking into the floors and even oozing into adjacent rooms But it gets worse It seems that the dark truth about the palace of Versailles was that it had a human excrement problem Chamber pots were just thrown out of windows and not even the royals were safe from these unceremonious dumpings Reportedly even Queen Marie Antoanette got nailed by the contents of a chamber pot while she resided at the palace However flying human waste wasn’t even the most shocking sight Many courters at the palace simply gave up on trying to locate a latrine to do their business and popped a squat wherever they wanted One account made by Princess Elizabeth Charlotte in 1702 drives this point home The people stationed in the galleries in front of our room piss in all the corners It is impossible to leave one’s apartment without seeing somebody pissing However when it comes to firstirhand accounts this isn’t even the worst one One description of life at the Palace of Versailles proves just how nasty it truly was The unpleasant odors in the park gardens even the chateau make one’s gorge rise The communicating passages courtyards buildings and the wings corridors are full of urine and feces A pork butcher actually sticks and roasts his pigs at the bottom of the minister’s wings every morning The Avenue St cloud is covered with stagnant water and dead cats Faced with a very smelly situation corders came up with a way to combat it For those living at the palace the best way to get rid of a bad scent was to bury it in a good scent or at least try to Courers covered themselves in perfume but unfortunately mixing two potent scents likely exacerbated the problem Cats also took up residence at the palace Some of them were pets while others were feral With so much waste rodents abound which in turn lured cats onto the estate But these beloved creatures only made hygiene conditions even worse Just like their owners these cats were doing their business wherever they pleased and they also bit the dust wherever they pleased Their furry bodies littering the streets However they weren’t the only critters to make a nuisance of themselves Enter lice Thanks to Louis the 14th wigs were extremely trendy during his reign After all he wore one himself to disguise his balding However hair and wigs were also the perfect breeding ground for lice Most men actually shaved their head and wore a wig which was the easier way to deal with lice infestations One wouldn’t have to go through the painstaking process of plucking lice out of their hair but instead only had to boil their wigs Women on the other hand usually had full heads of hair making lice far more of a problem Even sitting down to enjoy a meal at Versailles wasn’t safe The food preparation standards would have likely raised all the red flags today Considering the fact that many of the courters suffered bouts of intestinal parasites there’s a good chance that things weren’t always clean in the kitchen However even Louis the 14th had some horrific experiences that stemmed from the food he ate Though the king himself made a habit of washing his hands he too endured his fair share of tapeworms Reportedly he even passed one that was close to 6 in Turns out there was a good reason why the court of Versailles earned itself such a dismal reputation You see it wasn’t built on the best foundation and would have fared much better if it had been close to a flowing river that could move all the waste away from the site One might also point a finger of blame at King Louis I 14th himself When Louisie decided to stay put at Versailles instead of moving between his royal courts he placed a massive burden on the caretaker’s shoulders Now they no longer had periods of respit to devote to deep cleaning the palace and grounds Instead garbage and waste began piling up Not only was the palace of Versail a mess but the forest around it also hid some scandalous secrets When the court permanently moved to Versailles it attracted people from all classes and the forest became a perfect place for them to intermingle and copulate The forest that boarded the grounds became something of an open air brothel where folks went to satiate their appetites for pleasure People began accepting money in exchange for intimate services and this caused the king to label them as sinners There was no getting around it King Louis the 14th was quite the diva with the title like the sun king It’s no wonder that he enjoyed the warm glow of attention that came with being on stage In the case of Versailles this meant there were productions ballets and dances that both he and his courters were a part of The gardens became the location for some of the grandest ballets imaginable In addition to the dancing these elaborate productions incorporated art music and live animals But for Louisie they were also part of a separate agenda By making his koiers participate in these dances Louie was able to have better control over them He kept them as busy as possible therefore preventing them from conspiring amongst themselves and plotting against him However when it came to spectacles at Versailles perhaps the most uncomfortable one was when the queen pregnant with their royal heir finally went into labor This was not a private occasion Not at all In fact the doors were wide open On December 19th 1778 the queen went into labor A bell rang out of the palace which alerted everyone to the special occasion and soon courters began heading for her apartments A crowd began building in the room where the queen labored and beyond Everyone wanted to get a good view of the birth When Marie Antonette welcomed her little girl Marie Theres the commotion of the onlookers reached such a height that the queen lost consciousness Knowing how nasty Versailles could be it’s no wonder that a pest at the palace became the inspiration for the name of a color Have you ever heard of the color pus This reddish brown color comes with an unsavory origin story In 1775 Marie Antuinette put on a dress that had a very unique color It was Louis V 16th who had pointed it out stating that it was similar to the color of a flea However this wasn’t the only color at Versailles to be given an unfortunate name Now despite the stinky truth about Versailles it still represented the excess of the royal courts During the time of King Louis V 16th’s reign the people of France came to resent how the rich lived in luxury while the poor starved French citizens were especially critical of Marie Antuinette who eventually garnered herself a dangerous reputation People thought their queen spent too much money on frivolous desires like fashion and gambling Therefore when the French Revolution kicked off in 1789 Versailles became an easy target Versailles had a stunning golden front gate which suffered the consequences of the people’s wrath The revolutionary government gave the order to have it completely demolished It wasn’t until 2008 that a restoration project brought the gate back to life Constructed using 100,000 gold leaves