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Before the construction of the Palace, Versailles was a little hunting lodge built by Louis XIII, father of Louis XIV in 1623. To the reign of Louis XIV, he liked the place so much that massive construction of monarch・s residence, including the chateau and the imperial garden, was initiated in 1661 by Philibert Le Roy, his ：royal engineer and architect.； Then, other royal architects such as Louis Le Vau, Francois d・Orbay, Jules Hardouin-Mansart and Jacques-Ange Gabriel led the vast extension and reconstruction projects of the palaces. The Chateau de Versailles, the most spectacular palace in Europe, was generally completed in 1756, under the reign of Louis XV, the son of Louis XIV.
(INSERT: the information of the Forbidden City)
From the above paragraphs, it is easily to be known that it took 95 years to complete the Palace of Versailles, while 13 years was token to build the Forbidden City by simple calculation. It is obvious that the period of construction of the Palace of Versailles is much longer than that of the Forbidden City, which is more than 7 times of the latter. It can be explained in terms of areas and buildings of the palaces. The area of the Chateau of Versailles is larger than that of the Forbidden City by (size) sq. m2. (For details, please refer to the chapter of ：Area； in the part of ：Basic Elements；) In general, area is directly proportional to the period of construction, which means larger the area is, longer the period of construction takes. Moreover, the design, constructing techniques and building materials of the buildings and masterpieces, like the Hall of Mirrors and Chapel Royal etc. in the Palace of Versailles, were much more sophisticated than those in the Forbidden City. More time had to be taken to design, collect the building materials and construct to produce that most magnificent palace in Europe. Under the reasons of area and buildings construction, it is reasonable that the Palace of Versailles took much more time to be built.