Grands travaux d’aménagement du vallon de Marly

• Main Author: Jean-David Vernhes
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Centre de Recherche du Château de Versailles 2006-03-01
• Series: Bulletin du Centre de Recherche du Château de Versailles
• Subjects: Marly-le-Roi; heritage; geotechnics; geology; underground water; earthworks
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/crcv/14555

The Marly valley is situated 8 kilometres to the north of Versailles. The soil is made up of Rupelian sands lying on clay and marl, with an overall variation in level of 70 metres. Louis XIV chose this valley for a truly new royal place of residence, built between 1679 and his death in 1715, which became his favourite. Thanks to the experience gained during the works carried out on the gardens of Versailles, with the same geological conditions, and spurred on by the natural limits this first site had imposed to his fountains and landscaping, the French monarch dedicated considerable resources to the earthworks intended to transform his new estate. At the end of the dark period between 1792 and 1811, during which all the buildings in the park were dismantled and sold, stone by stone, only “geotechnical remains” survived in the park and can still be seen today. We have assessed the earthworks undertaken during the initial seven years of activity – on about 25 hectares (60 acres) of land – at between 600,000 and one million cubic metres. These were concentrated around the Grand Miroir, a draining pool that had the same purpose as the Grand Canal in the park of Versailles. Around 2.2 linear kilometres of retaining walls were also built, 3.5 metres high and 0.6 metres thick (median values), but probably later and more gradually, and therefore in a heterogeneous manner. Of the retaining walls inside the park, 15 per cent of the total length can be considered authentic – never modified since they were built – half of which are still in a fairly good state.