<P> Pavlovsk Palace was built by Catherine the Great's son Paul . The czarevitch and his wife, Marie Feodorovna, were ardent francophiles, who, on a visit to France and Versailles in May and June 1782, purchased great quantities of silk, which they later used to upholster furniture in Pavlovsk . The palace survived the Russian Revolution intact--descendants of Paul I were living in the palace at the time the communists evicted them--however, during the Second World War, the furniture and artifacts housed in the palace, which had been transformed into a museum, were removed . In the process of evacuation the museum collections, remnants of the silks purchased by Paul I of Russia and Marie Feodorovna were found and preserved . After the war when Soviet authorities were restoring the palace, which had been gutted by the retreating Nazi forces, they recreated the silk fabrics by using the preserved 18th - century remnants . </P> <P> When these results and high quality achieved were brought to the attention of the French Minister of Culture, he revived 18th - century weaving techniques so as to reproduce the silks used in the decoration of Versailles . The two greatest achievements of this initiative are seen today in wall hangings used in the restoration of the chambre de la reine in the grand appartement de reine and the chambre du roi in the appartement du roi . While the design used for the chambre du roi was, in fact, from the original design to decorate the chambre de la reine, it nevertheless represents a great achievement in the ongoing restoration at Versailles . Additionally, this project, which took over seven years to achieve, required several hundred kilograms of silver and gold to complete . One of the more costly endeavours for the museum and France's Fifth Republic has been to repurchase as much of the original furnishings as possible . However, because furniture with a royal provenance--and especially furniture that was made for Versailles--is a highly sought after commodity on the international market, the museum has spent considerable funds on retrieving much of the palace's original furnishings . </P> <P> The Fifth Republic has enthusiastically promoted the museum as one of France's foremost tourist attractions, with recent figures stating that nearly five million people visit the château, and 8 to 10 million walk in the gardens, every year . In 2003, a new restoration initiative--the "Grand Versailles" project--was started, which necessitated unexpected repair and replantation of the gardens, which had lost over 10,000 trees during Hurricane Lothar on 26 December 1999 . The project will be on - going for the next seventeen years, funded with a state endowment of € 135 million allocated for the first seven years . It will address such concerns as security for the palace and continued restoration of the bosquet des trois fontaines . Vinci SA underwrote the € 12 million restoration project for the Hall of Mirrors, which was completed in 2006 . </P> <P> On 6 May 1682, Versailles became officially the seat of the government of the kingdom of France, the home of the French King Louis XIV, and the location of the royal court . Symbolically, the central room of the long extensive symmetrical range of buildings was the King's Bedchamber (appartement du roi), which itself was centred on the lavish and symbolic state bed, set behind a rich railing . Indeed, even the principal axis of the gardens themselves was conceived to radiate from this fulcrum . All the power of France emanated from this centre: there were government offices here; as well as the homes of thousands of courtiers, their retinues and all the attendant functionaries of court . By requiring that nobles of a certain rank and position spend time each year at Versailles, Louis XIV prevented them from developing their own regional power at the expense of his own and kept them from countering his efforts to centralize the French government in an absolute monarchy . </P>

When did the palace of versailles become a museum
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