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The Hall of Mirrors served family and court functions. In the 18th century, 25 February 1745, Louis XV met the Marquise de Pompadour here, who was to become his mistress. They were attending a costume ball where he was dressed as a yew tree, and she came as Diana, Queen of the Hunt. In the 19th century, at the conclusion of the Franco-Prussian War, the Prussian King, William I, was declared German emperor--thus establishing the (second) German Empire--on January 18, 1871, in the Hall of Mirrors by Bismarck and the victorious German princes and lords. French Prime Minister Clemenceau chose the Hall of Mirrors to sign the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I on June 28, 1919. It was impossible to take pictures of the mirrors as hundreds of people were in the room. |