The Petite Venise are the group of buildings, which no longer exists today, built under the reign of

Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Vers ...

in the park of the

Palace of Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 19 ...

and intended to house the accommodation and the construction site of all the personnel contributing to the manoeuvre, maintenance or construction of the Royal Flotilla sailing on the Grand Canal.Amélie Halna du Fretay (CRCV)
"La flottille du Grand Canal de Versailles à l’époque de Louis XIV : diversité, technicité et prestige"
/ref> A set of buildings located at the eastern end of the Grand Canal, near the Apollo basin, halfway between Trianon and the Palace of Versailles, was therefore built to the standards of military architecture of the time with a closed rectangular shape with a central interior courtyard divided into different activity areas, housing, storage workshops. The name Petite Venise came to it after the gift of four gondolas with their Venetian gondoliers made by the Doge of Venice to the king. In addition to

gondola The gondola (, ; vec, góndoła ) is a traditional, flat-bottomed Venetian rowing boat, well suited to the conditions of the Venetian lagoon. It is typically propelled by a gondolier, who uses a rowing oar, which is not fastened to the hull ...

s and rowboats, boats typical of French regions or foreign countries were manufactured in their place of origin, dismantled and then transported to Versailles, where they were reassembled in Petite Venise. Sailors,

carpenters Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. Carpenters tra ...

or caulkers therefore worked on a varied fleet of rowboats, gondolas, up to larger ships like a

galley A galley is a type of ship that is propelled mainly by oars. The galley is characterized by its long, slender hull, shallow draft, and low freeboard (clearance between sea and gunwale). Virtually all types of galleys had sails that could be used ...

or a

galiot A galiot, galliot or galiote, was a small galley boat propelled by sail or oars. There are three different types of naval galiots that sailed on different seas. A ''galiote'' was a type of French flat-bottom river boat or barge and also a flat- ...

References

Palace of Versailles