Queen’s Hamlet, Estate of Trianon in the Palace of Versailles, France

There are three areas on the Estate of Trianon in the Palace of Versailles, 20 kilometres from Paris: The Grand Trianon, the Petite (Little) Trianon, and the Queen’s Hamlet. Trianon means ‘a small elegant villa’ in French.

King Louis XIV of France commissioned the Estate of Trianon in 1670 as a private retreat from the much larger Palace of Versailles.

The Petit Trianon is a Neoclassical-style castle, built between 1762-1768 during the reign of King Louis XV. Ange-Jacques Gabriel designed the Petite Trianon for Louis XV’s mistress Madame Pompadour, but she died four years before its completion. Madame du Barry moved in. The next king, Louis XVI, gave the Petit Trianon to Marie-Antoinette.

Marie-Antoinette commissioned the building of a Hamlet (the Hamlet of the Queen) on the grounds of the Palace of Versailles in 1783 as a private retreat. It includes smaller buildings and areas, such as the mill, the dairy, vegetable gardens, and the Marlborough Tower. Her personal architect Richard Minque designed the Hamlet which was completed in four years. The Hamlet was neglected after the French Revolution, and renovated in the 1990s.

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MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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