France’s Versailles Palace to become luxury hotel

The Palace of Versailles will transform one of its satellite buildings into a luxury hotel. Belgian company Ivy International SA plans to turn one of the satellite buildings in the French palace’s complex into a luxury hotel. The opening of the 23-bedroom establishment, in which some rooms will look out onto the “Orangerie”, the chateau’s elaborate greenhouse, is planned for late 2011.

The opulent Palace of Versailles, situated 20km from Paris, is a UNESCO World Heritage site and remained the French seat of power until Marie-Antoinette and her husband King Louis XVI were killed during the French Revolution. Built in the 1680s by the architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart, the 1,700 square-meter (18,000 square-feet) Hotel du Grand Control served as an officers’ mess until 2006.

But the luxury hotel, which will open sometime in 2011 .Ivy, will pay for the renovation works, estimated at 5.5 million Euros (7.3 million dollars), which will be led by historic monuments architect-in-chief Frederic Didier.

The company will pay Versailles an annual fee to lease the building.