ur,
Napoleon's architect, have remained to the present time. Certain parts
of the palace giving on the courts were in ruins, Louis XV and his heir
having had no money to spare for their restoration. In 1811, after the
Peace of Vienna, Napoleon, then in residence at the Grand Trianon, took
under advisement the complete reconstruction of the palace. In
consternation he surveyed the tumbling walls and the general confusion
that confronted him during one of his promenades in the park and
Orangery. "Why," cried he, "did the Revolution, which destroyed
everything else, spare the chateau of Versailles! Then I would not
have had on my hands this embarrassing legacy from Louis XIV--an old
chateau poorly built--one much favored without just cause."

Architects busied themselves with innumerable plans for re-making the
shabby pile. Some would have torn down the Council Hall, the
bed-chamber of Louis XIV, the antechamber of the Bull's Eye, and all
the rest of the palace except the apartments of the King and Queen, the
Gallery with the salons at either end, the Chapel and the Opera House.
Napoleon was willing to spend 6,000 francs on the construction of
suites for himself and his family "and fifty others." "Then," said he,
"we could perhaps come to Versailles to pass a summer." The disasters
of the year 1812 and the fall of the Empire saved the palace from the
threatened renovation.

When Louis XVIII ascended the throne of his Bourbon ancestors after the
extinction of Napoleon's Star of Hope, he conceived a new plan "to put
the chateau of Versailles in a habitable state." During the next six
years (1814-1820) the King restored the Hall of Mirrors and all that
was especially associated with Louis XIV. He finished the facade on
the Paris side, begun by Gabriel under Louis XV, and built a pavilion
corresponding to the one designed and erected by this same architect.
He did away with a maze of small apartments, cleaned and simplified the
interior, restored painted ceilings and gilt embellishments, and with
great care put in order the entire palace and its surroundings. The
chapel was repaired and blessed anew by the Bishop of Strassbourg.

Many State visitors came to see Versailles, even in the days when it
was shorn of its glory. Pope Pius VII was there in 1805. From the
balcony outside the Gallery of Mirrors he bestowed his benediction upon
a crowd that stood below on the terraces. Two days later the Salon of
Hercules