Louis XIV moved the French royal residence from the Louvre to Versailles. The shift was gradual, but Versailles became the monarchy’s principal seat and the center of court life in 1682.
Versailles began as a hunting lodge built for Louis XIII. Louis XIV transformed it into a vast palace after taking personal control of the government in 1661, commissioning architects Louis Le Vau and Jules Hardouin-Mansart, painter Charles Le Brun, and landscape designer André Le Nôtre. The expanding complex could house the king, his household, nobles, and the elaborate machinery of court ceremony.
The move reduced the political independence of powerful nobles by drawing them into the king’s orbit. Access to the monarch became governed by palace rituals, offices, and privileges, helping Louis XIV strengthen royal absolutism. Paris remained the capital, but Versailles functioned as the political and social headquarters of the monarchy.
Louis XV and Louis XVI also lived and ruled at Versailles, which can cause confusion about the answer. They inherited the residence; Louis XIV was the monarch who established the royal court there.