In 1623, Louis XIII, king of France, built a hunting lodge on a hill in a favourite hunting ground, west of Paris, and from his primary residence, the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. The site, near a village named Versailles, was a wooded wetland that Louis XIII's court scorned as being generally unworthy of a king; one of his courtiers, François de Bassompierre, wrote that the lodge "would not inspire vanity in even the simplest gentleman". From 1631 to 1634, architect Philibert Le Roy replaced the lodge with a château for Louis XIII, who forbade his queen, Anne of Austria, from staying there overnight, even when an outbreak of smallpox at Saint-Germain-en-Laye in 1641 forced Louis XIII to relocate to Versailles with his three-year-old heir, the future Louis XIV.
In 1623 Louis XIII king of France built a hunting lodge on a hill in a favourite hunting ground west of Paris and from his primary residence the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye The site near a village named Versailles was a wooded wetland that Louis XIII's court scorned as being generally unworthy of a king; one of his courtiers François de Bassompierre wrote that the lodge "would not inspire vanity in even the simplest gentleman" From 1631 to 1634 architect Philibert Le Roy replaced the lodge with a château for Louis XIII who forbade his queen Anne of Austria from staying there overnight even when an outbreak of smallpox at Saint-Germain-en-Laye in 1641 forced Louis XIII to relocate to Versailles with his three-year-old heir the future Louis XIV