Gallery of Battles

The Gallery of Battles is a vast hall on the ground floor of the south wing of the Palace of Versailles, and it is one of the most impressive rooms in the whole complex, although it is not a creation of the kings who built the palace. It was made in the 1830s by Louis-Philippe, the king who came to power after the revolution of 1830 and who decided to turn much of Versailles into a museum dedicated to all the glories of France. The museum, called the Museum of the History of France, was opened in 1837 with the famous inscription on the facade, to all the glories of France, and the Gallery of Battles was its centrepiece. The architects Frédéric Nepveu and Pierre Fontaine carried out the work, which required the demolition of a number of historic apartments inside the palace, a choice that remains controversial among historians.

The room is about 120 metres long and thirteen metres wide, with a high ceiling lit from above, and it is lined on both sides with giant paintings of French military victories, arranged in order from the early Middle Ages to the early nineteenth century. The scenes begin with the Battle of Tolbiac in 496 and end with Napoleon's victory at Wagram in 1809, and they include famous episodes such as the Battle of Bouvines, the Battle of Taillebourg, painted by Eugène Delacroix, and a series of the emperor's campaigns. The paintings were commissioned from many of the leading artists of the day, and they were meant to show that every regime, from the kings to the emperor, belonged to a single story of national pride. Between the pictures, marble busts and plaques list the names of famous soldiers and other heroes, as in a pantheon.

The visitor who walks the length of the gallery sees the long line of pictures, and the effect is both grand and slightly overwhelming. It also shows how history was used in the nineteenth century to create a shared sense of identity. The rest of the museum, now part of the Palace of Versailles, includes other rooms from Louis-Philippe's scheme, such as the Coronation Room, which holds paintings of Napoleon's coronation, and the Empire rooms, with portraits and busts of the imperial era.

The gallery is included in a standard ticket to the Palace of Versailles. The palace has other attractions: the Church of the Royal Domain, the Parterre d'Eau, the Grand Canal, the Royal Opera of Versailles, the Grand Trianon, the Queen's Hamlet and the Trianon Estate Market, so a single visit can fill a whole day. Security checks are strict, and there are rules on bag sizes, so travel light. Audioguides are available in many languages.

Allow about half an hour for the gallery. It suits history lovers and those curious about how France remembers its past.