Grand Trianon
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
Built near Versailles by Louis XIV, the Grand Trianon was designed to act as a place where Louis XIV could retreat with family and other select members of his Court, away from the rigid etiquette at the Palace of Versailles.
It replaced a smaller house, the 'Porcelain Trianon', built specifically for the King's discarded mistress. Athenais, Marquise de Montespan. This lovers' hideaway was built on the site of the old hamlet of Trianon.
Hardouin-Mansart was put in charge of the construction of the new Trianon in 1687. Mansart completed construction of the chateau the next year. Later, towards the end of the King's reign, even Trianon became too bound by court etiquette, and the esteem the royal family had for the chateau was replaced by the King's new retreat, the Château de Marly.
After the demise of the French monarchy, the Grand Trianon (called so after the Petit Trianon was built nearby by Louis XV in the 1760s) was occupied by Napoleon from 1805 to 1815, who refurnished it in Empire Style. It is now a popular tourist site at Versailles, and is used by the French President when entertaining foreign officials.
It was also used as a place of negotiating and signing treaties after World War I. In Hungary the word "Trianon" is still used as a symbol of one of their worse national disasters as the country lost two thirds of its territory in the treaty signed here.
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