Galerie des Batailles 2.73

The Galerie des Batailles is a 120 metre long and 13 metre wide gallery occupying the first floor of the aile du midi of the Palace of Versailles, joining onto the grand and petit 'appartements de la reine'. It is an epigone of the Grande galerie of the Louvre and was intended to glorify French military history from the Battle of Tolbiac to the Battle of Wagram .HistoryIts creation was the idea of Louis-Philippe I, King of the French and it replaced apartments which had been occupied in the 17th and 18th centuries by Louis XIV's brother Philippe I, Duke of Orléans and his second wife, Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate Philippe II, Duke of Orléans (regent during Louis XV's minority) and his wife the regent's son Louis d'Orléans, Duke of Orléans Princess Maria Josepha of Saxony (1731–1767) as dauphine Charles X of France, whilst comte d’Artois Princess Élisabeth of France The architects Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine and Frédéric Nepveu created a solemn decorative scheme for it, with a wide cornice supporting a coffered painted ceiling with entablatures supported by Corinthian columns along the length of the gallery. 13 bronze tablets on the wall are inscribed with the names of princes, admirals, constables, marshals and warriors killed or wounded whilst fighting for France. There are also busts placed on supports against the columns and between the paintings.