Versailles: Lost Gardens of the Sun King

In March 2025, Versailles: Lost Gardens of the Sun King debuts at the Château de Versailles, reviving for the first time three historically significant lost spaces of Versailles’ gardens built under Louis XIV, the “Sun King.” Co-produced by VIVE Arts with GEDEON Experiences, Small Creative and Chateau de Versailles, this landmark collaboration offers a collective and interactive virtual reality (VR) location-based experience (LBE) of these vanished sites and allows visitors to engage closely with this under-explored aspect of French royal history and Louis XIV’s legacy.

Developed through the meticulous mining of archival documents, expert testimony, and archaeological remains, and brought to life with cutting-edge technology and HTC’s VIVE Focus Vision mobile headsets, this immersive LBE transports users to the first gardens of the Château de Versailles at the height of its royal influence in 1682. Through the scientific and artistic reconstruction of three emblematic sites – the Royal Menagerie, the Labyrinth Grove, and the Grotto of Tethys – visitors can investigate the role these spaces played in shaping the Sun King’s historical legacy.

Guided by André Le Nôtre, the architect of the gardens, the free-roaming, multi-user experience invites users to rediscover a Versailles where entertainment and nature became instruments of power and splendor, bearing witness to the royal ambitions of Louis XIV, and illustrating the complex relationship between art, architecture, and royal power. The experience’s interactivity capabilities enable users to engage with the historically accurate environment, enhancing the possibilities for self-guided exploration and the extent to which visitors can learn from this virtual recreation.

VIVE Arts’ partnership with Château de Versailles, GEDEON Experiences, and Small Creative builds on its wide-ranging program of commissions and collaborations with leading cultural institutions around the globe to create innovative immersive projects that expand the ways culture can be experienced.

Versailles: Lost Gardens of the Sun King is open at Château de Versailles from March 25 through January 4, 2026.