and Orangerie. In 1701 a bronze Hercules was placed in the Orangerie at Versailles and the themes of the pice reflected those of Lois XIV's rule. Other Italian Renisances pieces in the gardens included copies of Bacchus and Diana. Under Louis XIV Originally completed in 1663, the Orangerie was intended to supply the much smaller hunting lodge of Versailles and the small retinue which Louis XIV would bring with him in the summer. In 1678, an enlargement of the Orangerie was begun by Jules Hardouin-Mansart, which doubled the size of the original. Completed in 1688, the masonry pavilions of the new Orangerie were modelled on the theories of the horticulturalist Jean-Baptiste de La Quintinie, the master gardener of the , whose writings detailed a system for protecting exotic plants from the cold without the use of artificial heating. As Louis XIV grew older he became allergic to flowers and preferred the smell of the citrus trees, developing a love for orange trees. He had them potted in solid silver tubs and placed throughout the state rooms of the Palace to perfume the air. The Orangerie was intended to supply the palace with specimens and supply the Court with fruit year-round. In 1664, a year after the first Orangerie was completed, Louis XIV disgraced his former Finance Minister Nicolas Fouquet, who was convicted of maladministration. Fouquet suffered the confiscation of his property to the Crown, including over 1,000 orange trees from Vaux-le-Vicomte which were transferred to the Orangerie. Numbering several thousand trees by the 1790s, the Orangerie was the largest of its kind in Europe and a major attraction for visiting diplomats and foreign royalty. In 1698 the British Ambassador to France, William Bentinck, 1st Earl of Portland, reported back to King William III that he had been taken to view the orange trees at Versailles, but compared them unfavorably to William's own collections in Holland. Location in the garden The Versailles Orangerie is under the flowerbed known as . Its central gallery is in length, and its frontage is directed towards the south. The is bordered on its south side by a balustrade overlooking the Saint-Cyr-l'École. This separates it from the "Swiss Pond". Gallery References Palace of Versailles Orangeries