Shabby Chic: Versailles' Bibliothèque Centrale

Le Nerd Librarian
Apr 20, 2019
1 min read

Welcome to the Breathtaking Bookshelves series!

The goal here is to showcase some cool libraries, French or otherwise.

The building: The Main Library is located in the Former Hôtel des Affaires étrangères et de la Marine, built in 1761, as Louis XV was looking to centralize all of his administrative services in Versailles.

During the Revolution, the building became one of the storage places that housed some of the confiscated documents, with the idea that these should later be made available to the public, in order to help "educate the masses". (Why the Revolutionaries planned to educate the masses with controversial texts confiscated from the Church or political dissidents is something that I've never understood!)

The Galerie des archives du Ministère des Affaires Etrangères is the most beautiful part of the library, decorated in the Baroque tradition, with white and gold paneling.

The collections: historical texts confiscated during the Revolution, rare books dating back to the 16th century, famous authors' manuscripts...

Fun fact! This is where the Treaty of Paris that ended the American Revolutionary War was signed in 1783!

All photos mine except the Galerie (Versailles.fr)

Source: https://www.versailles.fr/culture/etablissements/bibliotheques-municipales/histoire-et-patrimoine/