town of France, capital of the department Seine et Oise, in a plain 11 miles W. of Paris. It covers a large space of ground, and is divided into two parts by a fine avenue, forming part of the road from Paris. This avenue is nearly half a mile long and about 300 feet broad. Notre Dame is the name of the part of Versailles to the north, St Louis that of the part to the south of it; so called from the parish churches in each. The whole town is modern, consisting of straight streets, crossing each other at right angles, and lined with splendidly built houses. Besides the principal avenue, two others—those of St Cloud and Sceaux—all planted with fine elm-trees, diverge from the Place d'Armes in front of the palace, and separated from it by a court. To the palace the whole town may be said to owe its existence; with it Versailles rose, flourished and declined. While it was merely a small village in 1627, Louis XIII. erected here a small hunting-lodge, which his more magnificent successor enlarged and embellished, until it became one of the most splendid royal residences in Europe. It was the ordinary seat of the court under Louis XIV., XV., and XVI., till the Revolution; and it was here that latter event began with the meeting of the states-general, May 5, 1789. Here, too, on the 20th of June of the same year, the deputies of the people took the famous oath in the tennis-court, called the Jeu de Paume; and here, on the 5th and 6th of October, a hungry mob from Paris forced their way into the palace, and conveyed the king and his family to the capital. From that time Versailles ceased to be a royal residence. The palace remained in a state of great neglect until Louis Philippe restored it, and made it a national collection of paintings, and other monuments illustrative of the history of France. The town front consists of a centre and two wings, forming three sides of the court that opens on the Place d'Armes. The garden front also consists of three parts facing different directions; and this is, in the estimation of many, one of the finest pieces of architecture in existence. It consists of eighty-six Ionic columns, arranged in groups of six or eight, each group surrounded by a cornice, on which there are as many statues as pillars below. The interior consists of a vast number of saloons and galleries most richly and artistically decorated. In connection with the palace, there are a chapel, a theatre, gardens, and a park; besides a large range of buildings formerly occupied by the attendants of the court. The park contains many fountains, sheets of water, pieces of sculpture; and the two smaller palaces, called the Great and Little Trianon, with their respective gardens. Versailles is the see of a bishop, and has two churches, a royal college, normal school, ecclesiastical school, public library, theatre, hospital, barracks, and prison. Firearms, clocks, and watches, jewellery, hats, hosiery, wax-candles, pasteboard, earthenware, and glass, are made here; and some trade is carried on in corn, firewood, fruit, &c. Pop. (1856) 29,956.