Church of Notre-Dame, Versailles

Notre-Dame de Versailles is the Roman Catholic parish church of the Notre-Dame quarter, the older northern half of the town. It went up between 1684 and 1686 to designs by Jules Hardouin-Mansart, Louis XIV's court architect and the same hand behind much of the palace. Mansart anchored the church on the central axis of a freshly laid-out neighbourhood, so it doubled as urban planning and royal parish. Until the Revolution it was the official church of the royal household, where baptisms, marriages and deaths of staff and family were recorded. It has been a Monument historique since 2005. Today the restrained classical interior, with its barrel vault and a 1761 organ, offers a quiet break from the palace crowds just a short walk away.