PARC DE VERSAILLES – LE BASSIN DE LATONE ET LE TAPIS VERT

Another shot of the Bassin de Latone but taken from the Palace side of the fountain. It shows the Grand Perspective, the great expanse of parklands that were constructed for the King’s pleasure at Versailles. You also see the gradient of the fall towards the Grand Canal in the distance.

The crowds in the photo seem transfixed by the great water display on offer there. The fountain operates three times a week during the high season.

The Latona Fountain is actually the lynch pin of the hydraulic system of the park of Versailles: the water collected in its underground galleries supplies the other fountains of the park.

In 2013 the fountain was restored completely and allowed us to understand more about the techniques and skills of the artisans, master craftsmen and engineers who created the fountain three centuries beforehand.

The Fountains of Versailles were supplied with water from the Seine. How it was done is an amazing tale in itself .....

Louis XVI was disappointed with the fountains and invited individuals to submit ideas for ways to better the water pressure and display.

Baron Arnold de Ville submitted a project for 'raising the waters of the Seine to the summit of the high ground round Louveciennes by means of a gigantic pump’. De Ville had already installed a smaller version of the system on his estate outside Liège. The system had been probably invented by Rennequin Sualem, a carpenter also of Liège.

Around 1680 a working model was made and tested that raised water to the level of the terrace at St. Germain.

The King was pleased.

A site was selected at Bougival where a chain of islands divided the path of the Seine and work began on the most fabulous machine of its age: the Machine de Marly.

“The "machine" of Marly was a civil engineering marvel located at the bottom of the hill of Louveciennes, on the banks of the Seine about 12 kms from Paris. Louis XIV had it constructed to pump water from the river to his chateaux of Versailles and Marly. The construction lasted 7 years and was inaugurated in the presence of the King in June 1684. It was considered a wonder of the world at the time, and may have been the largest system of integrated machinery ever assembled to that date.

Fourteen paddle wheels, each about 38 feet in diameter, were turned by the Seine to power more than 250 pumps, forcing river water up a series of pipes to the Louveciennes aqueduct, a 500 foot vertical rise. In use until 1817, it was subsequently updated and rebuilt, finally ending up as an electrical generator until 1963. The building was demolished in 1968 when that arm of the Seine was rearranged for navigation. A regional waterworks company still owns the site and uses electrical motors to pump water from the Croissy aquifer to some of the original reservoirs in Marly.

The original Louis XIV Machine included not just an enormous structure on the river itself, but sprawled 600 meters all the way up the hill, comprising pumping stations, holding tanks, reservoirs, pipes and an intricate system of mechanical linkages to power pumps on the hill from the waterwheels below. Several accounts of the period describe the infernal noise this all generated, keeping Mme du Barry (Louis XV's last mistress) and her guests awake in her nearby chateau. Sixty maintenance workers were employed to keep it running. Pumping at full capacity, it could add over a million gallons in 24 hours to the Marly reservoirs. Nothing of the original Machine system has survived except for the Aqueduct, but the U shaped building at the bottom of the hill was part of the original complex. Foundation remnants can still be seen on the hill, which was the large, mid-slope reservoir. A small farmhouse, painted by Sisley, was originally part of the metalwork forges of the complex, but is in ruins today.

The chief engineer for the project was Arnold de Ville and the "contractor" was Rennequin Sualem (after whom the quai by the machine is now named). Louis XIV had a small chateau built in 1684 for de Ville as a reward for his work (and certainly to facilitate service calls for the extremely complex machinery). This building is the core of what would become the Chateau du Barry, which eventually was given by Louis XV to Madame Dubarry. She expanded it, and later outgrew it which led to the construction of the Pavillon du Barry.”

http://www.marlymachine.org

This is a postcard published by N.D. Phot No. 19: Neurdein et Cie (1860’s-1919) Paris, France.