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Concept
Grand Trianon
Summary
The Grand Trianon (ɡʁɑ̃ tʁijanɔ̃) is a French Baroque style château situated in the northwestern part of the Domain of Versailles in Versailles, France. It was built at the request of Louis XIV of France as a retreat for himself and his maîtresse-en-titre of the time, the Marquise de Montespan, and as a place where he and invited guests could take light meals (collations) away from the strict etiquette of the royal court. The Grand Trianon is set within its own park, which includes the Petit Trianon (a smaller château built in the 1760s, during the reign of Louis XV).
Trianon de Porcelaine
Between 1663 and 1665, Louis XIV purchased the hamlet of Trianon, on the outskirts of Versailles. In 1670, he commissioned the architect Louis Le Vau to design a porcelain pavilion (Trianon de porcelaine) to be built there.
The façade was made of white and blue Delft-style porcelain (ceramic) tiles from the French manufactures of Rouen, Lisieux, Nevers and Saint-Cloud. Construction began in 1670 and was finished two years later. Since it was made of porcelain, the building suffered from deterioration. Louis XIV ordered its demolition in 1686 and replaced it with a larger building.
By 1686, the fragile porcelain tiles of the Trianon de porcelaine had deteriorated to such a point that Louis XIV ordered the demolition of the pavilion and its replacement with one made of stronger material. Commission of the work was entrusted to the architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart. Hardouin-Mansart's new structure was twice the size of the porcelain pavilion, and the material used was red marble from Languedoc.
Begun in June 1687, the new construction (as we see it today) was finished in January 1688. It was inaugurated by Louis XIV and his secret wife, the Marquise de Maintenon, during the summer of 1688.
Hardouin-Mansart's early plans for the building were substantially altered during construction, with the original intention of keeping the core of the Trianon de porcelaine intact vetoed in favor of an open-air peristyle with a screen of red marble columns facing onto the garden.
Official source
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