In the 19th century Versailles was given a new destiny: it was to become the Museum of the History of France dedicated "to all the glories of France", in accordance with the wishes of Louis-Philippe, who became King of France in 1830. Additions continued to be made to the collections, mainly consisting of paintings and sculpture, until the beginning of the 20th century.
In 1789, the French Revolution forced Louis XVI to leave Versailles for Paris. The Palace would never again be a royal residence and a new role was assigned to it in the 19th century, when it became the Museum of the History of France in 1837 by order of King Louis-Philippe, who came to the throne in 1830.
After the 1830 Revolution, which overthrew Charles X, the last remaining brother of Louis XVI, his cousin Louis-Philippe d’Orléans was proclaimed King of the French. With a decision taken in 1833, the new sovereign asserted his intention to find a new use for Versailles. He withdrew its status as a Royal residence (which it had not been since 1789) and turned the Palace into a museum. The King was passionate about history, a discipline that was beginning at that time to be seen as science in its own right, and decided to collect together in one place all the paintings, sculptures, drawings and engravings that depicted the events and personalities that had marked French history since its beginning.
For Louis-Philippe, the museum inaugurated in 1837 and dedicated "to all the glories of France" was also a political act: his aim was to reconcile the partisans of the different regimes that had ruled France in turn since 1789 and to consolidate his own legitimacy as King of all the French.
Today Versailles thus reflects its dual past, with two distinct and complementary aspects: that of Ancien Régime royal residence and that of a 19th century museum.
With over 6,000 paintings and 3,000 sculptures, the museum remains the main iconographic source on the history of France.
