The Palace of Versailles (Château de Versailles) was a royal residence of France, from Kind Louis XIV to King Louis XVI.
Located at Yvelines, in the region of Île-de-France, Versailles has become a historical monument by UNESCO World Heritage, and became one of the most visited site in France, with the likes of Louvre and the Eiffel Tower.
And here, Google has recreated the palace in Virtual Reality (VR).
To do this, Google teamed with The Château de Versailles to create the largest photogrammetry project ever done at the castle. Capturing in details of the castle's 21 rooms and 387,500 square-feet of internal surfaces, Google collected 4TB of data and textured 15 billion pixels.
This way, people using VR headset, like Oculus Rift for example, can get a close look at the castle's sculptures, paintings and other artworks with great details.
According to Google on its Arts & Culture page dedicated to Versailles, users can have "a private virtual tour of the former home of French royalty".
Users can enter the King and Queen's State Apartments, the Royal Opera House, Royal Chapel and Hall of Mirrors, just to name a few of the iconic rooms.
"Tapestries, paintings, ceilings, sculptures and furniture, everything is within reach of your controller to grant you unlimited and privileged access to the treasures of Versailles," reads the description on Steam. "For a more intimate experience, switch to night mode and explore the Palace by the light of chimney fires."
Versailles is located in a place that was previously occupied by a small village and church, surrounded by forests.
It was owned by the Gondi family and the priory of Saint Julian. King Henry IV frequently hunted there, and stayed at the village inn at the site.. His son, after becoming King Louis XIII, bought some land, and built a two-story hunting lodge on the site.
It was during this time that King Louis XIII decided to make his hunting lodge at Versailles into a château (castle).
The King then purchased the surrounding land, and later in the 17th century replace the hunting lodge with bricks and stones to create a proper castle, complete with classical pilasters in the doric style and high slate-covered roofs, surrounding the courtyard of the original hunting lodge.
The gardens and park were also enlarged.
When Louis XIV first visited the castle on a hunting trip, he acquired a passion for the site, and decided to rebuild, embellish and enlarge the castle and transformed it into a residence for rest, entertainments on a grand scale.
Fast forward, the Palace of Versailles received around 10 million visitors a year. This made the site one of the most popular tourist destination in France.
