VERSAILLES ABLAZE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 274, 18 November 1936, Page 18

VERSAILLES ABLAZE.

Patrice Bonnet, an architect of the palace staff, estimated the damage at about 500,000 francs. % The palace was recently restored at a cost of 000,000 franc's (£400,000), which .lohn D. Rockefeller, jun., put at the disposal of the French Government.

Constructed nearly three centuries ago by order of King Louis Xl\ r . and more than fifty years in building, the Palace of Versailles is estimated to have cost more than £20,000,000, with celebrated gardens adjoining it and the near-by small palaces of the Grand Trianon and L'ctit Trianon. Louis XIV. and the French rulers after him resided in the palace and Napoleon lived there for a time. In 1871 the town of Versailles was the headquarters of the German army besieging Paris and King Wilhelm I. of Prussia was crowned German Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors of the palace. In 1011) the Treaty of Versailles was signed in the same hall by representatives of the Allied and Associated Powers and of Germany.

FAMOUS PALACE SAVED. PRICELESS TREASURES MENACED. VERSAILLES. The great palace here, where Louis XIV. held his court, one of the show places of the world, was in danger from lire for an hour. Swift work by local firemen, aided by reinforcements from Paris, quenched the blaze without material damage to the priceless furnishings and works of; art. The fire started in a basement. A passer-by saw the ltlow through a window at midnight. While firemen fought the blaze, palace watchmen began moving art objects from the threatened wing. Apparatus from Paris and the general staff of that city's fire department rushed to Versailles. By one o'clock the flames were quenched, and in another hour the smoke had cleared away and it was seen the palace had been saved with a minimum of damage. . The fire w;«jj in the south wing, known as the Apartments des Anciens Ministres, which is no longer used as a museum and consequently contained no objects of great value. Neighbouring sections of the palace, however, house treasures of incalculable value. The fire started in flooring just above, the furnace and was attributed to a short circuit. At •> a.m. the wing was still full of firemen, playing water and tearing up floors and walls, but there was no longer any danger.