Château de Marly

Marly-le-Roi, France

No longer standing

Demolished or destroyed.

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The Château de Marly was a French royal residence built in 1680 near Versailles in what is now Marly-le-Roi, designed by Jules Hardouin-Mansart and Robert de Cotte. Conceived as Louis XIV's retreat from the ceremonial formality of Versailles, the château featured an innovative layout of twelve matching pavilions arranged in pairs flanking sheets of water connected by formal cascades, allowing the king to receive select courtiers in intimate surroundings with simplified protocol. After the French Revolution the estate passed into private hands and was demolished in 1806 when its use as a factory became unprofitable; only the foundation of the central pavilion du Roi survives today. The associated hydraulic machinery that had pumped water to Versailles was also destroyed. Napoleon purchased the property in 1807, and the park now remains in state ownership.