Quick Guide to Versailles’ Fountains (and Versailles Fountain Shows)

The fountains at Versailles are designed in different styles and sizes, and they all tell a different story. The construction and management of the Versailles fountains are fascinating too. Being Versailles set far from a water source, the water supply to ensure the fountains’ functioning was always a big challenge.

---

---

---

Versailles Fountains Schedule

When are the fountains on at Versailles? During the Versailles Fountain Shows, it is important to understand that the fountains are not running all day. There’s a Versailles Fountains schedule you should get familiar with, especially if you also want to visit the Château and Trianons.

Before leaving for Versailles, study the Versailles fountains schedule and the Versailles Fountain Show times, and plan your Versailles itinerary accordingly.

This is one of the most important fountains at Versailles, from an aesthetic and symbolic point of view and a technical point of view.

Latona Fountain is part of the Grande Perspective, together with the Apollo Fountain and the Grand Canal. It illustrates the story of Latona, the mother of Apollo and Diana, who protects her children from the insults of Lycia’s peasants. She pleads with Jupiter to avenge her, and the god turns the inhabitants of Lycia into frogs and lizards. Latona Fountain also has a parterre containing two Lizard Fountains.

Latona Fountain occupies a nodal place in the heart of the Petit Parc, and it has the role of redistributing the waters. Thanks to this fountain, Versailles gets the necessary water to feed most of the fountains.

The water jets on the water parterres above converge into the Latona Fountain. This fountain spreads the water, always by gravity, to the water basins in the south, to a part of the Enceladus Fountain, and to Apollon’s Chariot below.

Latona Fountain is a fascinating fountain also below the ground. It has around 70 water jets, each fed by a different pipe, creating a complex network of pipes nicknamed “the spider.” This civil work of engineering is unique in the world, and most of these pipes still date from the reign of King Louis XIV!

The Apollo Foutain is another of the key elements of the Grande Perspective. It has existed since the time of King Louis XIII, and it was known as the Lake of the Swans. Later, King Louis XIV added the spectacular work in gilded lead of Apollo riding his chariot.

Apollo is the Sun God, one of the 12 Greek Gods of Mount Olympus, and the symbol of King Louis XIV. The Apollo Fountain features the god bursting forth from the water in anticipation of his daily flight above the earth.

The Apollo Fountain is fed by Latona Fountain by gravity.

The Salle de Bal is the last groove designed by Le Notre between 1678 and 1682, and it represents a kind of open-air amphitheater.

Here, Le Notre got the most out of the land’s different elevations by creating a big cascade where the water arrives by gravity from the reservoirs below the Palace’s water beds. In the center of this Ball Room, there was a kind of stage or dance floor today disappeared while the musicians were found on the top of the amphitheater.

This Salle de Bal was not good for shows (the cascade is very noisy), but the King organized frequent soirées or dinners here. These dinners were delightful in the summer, surrounded by the wall of freshwater.

The Salle de Bal is closed during the winter. It is only accessible during the Versailles Fountain Shows.

This is one of the most original fountains Versailles has to offer. The Enceladus Fountain dates from 1675, and it represents the giant Enceladus buried under the rocks of Mount Olympus by the Gods he and his brothers had wished to dethrone.

In the fountain, the giant is struggling to survive, and his suffering is captured by a powerful water jet that springs from his mouth like a scream. 

Enceladus has an impressive water jet of 23 meters, one of the gardens’ highest jets. This fountain is only accessible during the Versailles Fountain Shows, but out of season, you can see the giant from the fence.

The sculptures were recycled from the Tethys Grotto, demolished to build the present North Wing of the Palace, and they are considered a masterpiece of French sculpture in the 17th century.

This groove is only accessible during the Versailles Fountain Shows, and there’s no way to see anything of this fountain during the low season.

The Neptune Fountain, in the north of the Petit Parc, marks the gardens’ perspective North-South. This basin was designed under the reign of King Louis XIV but only finished with the last sculptures under King Louis XV.

The central sculpture group represents the God Neptune and Amphitrite, while the other two sculpture groups represent Proteus and Ocean with numerous marine animals.

The Neptune Fountain is greatly admired for the number, size, and variety of water jets falling around the lead sculptures, and the historic jet finale at the end of the afternoon is the highlight of the Versailles Fountain Show.

The Neptune Fountain receives the waters from the other fountains located above. Thanks to its 99 water jets, the basin turns into a water wall closing the perspective together with the Dragon Fountain just behind it.

How do the fountains of Versailles work? The Versailles fountains are an alliance of art and technique that requires a lot of water. When all the fountains were running, in 1715, they consumed the totality of 69,000 muids (one muid is equivalent to about 130 liters) of water in three hours!

The Château’s location, on the top of the hill and far from any water source, was not ideal for such a big project of water basins and fountains. Therefore, water supply was a recurring problem in Versailles.

This technical challenge required the help of hydraulic engineers, architects, and fountain masters who had to think about bringing water to Versailles, redistributing it to the fountains, and creating surprising water effects to arouse visitors’ wonder.

The first solution to solve this water issue was to create an artificial pond near the Château, the Lac de Clagny. From there, water was pumped with the help of water mills, windmills, or pumps moved by horse carousels and then stocked in the reservoirs in the Domain of Versailles. This first hydraulic system made it possible to supply the dozen or so existing fountains, and King Louis XIV inaugurated the first Grandes Eaux de Versailles on 17 August 1666.

But the King wanted to add other fountains and water jets, so more water was necessary. During the following years, the hydraulic engineers brought more water to the Domain of Versailles by constructing other artificial ponds. Bucket windmills, siphons, and aqueducts completed the network to bring the water from the ponds to the reservoirs in the Domain of Versailles.

Over the years, the wooden pipes were replaced by lead pipes and then by cast iron. The hydrant man became an important function in the Palace, the key to the fountains’ good operation, to the point that the King ennobled some of them.

The idea of ​​pumping water from the Seine River, the major river closest to Versailles, had existed for several years. But the distance of 10 km and especially the drop of 142 meters required the design of a monumental and expensive machine to pump water and bring it to Versailles’ reservoirs.

In 1682 the first Machine de Marly was inaugurated in the presence of the King and the court. This machine pumped water from the Seine to the Domain of Versailles and the Château de Marly thanks to a system of wooden wheels, siphons, and an aqueduct.

At that time, this amazing machine was considered the Eighth World Wonder, and it was visited by important dignitaries like Queen Victoria of England, the Tsar of Russia, and the US President.

Today, the waters of Versailles Park operate in a closed circuit that consumes 4,500 m3 per hour, with 35 km of the piping system unchanged since the 17th century. A team of 13 hydrant men manages this circuit.

An electric pump pumps water from the Grand Canal and refills the park’s reservoirs at the foot of the Palace. Rainwater helps complete this system. The different Fountains of Versailles are supplied with water by gravity.

Most of the fountains are still opened manually by the hydrant men. During the Versailles Fountain Show, you will see them wandering around the fountains, and they still use the same keys to open and close the fountains from the times of the Sun King!

Click here for more articles about Versailles

Back to Homepage