Vasily Ivanovich Bazhenov, Model for the Central Part of the Façade of the Great Kremlin Palace, Moscow, 1769-1773, A. V. Shchusev State Research Museum of Architecture, Moscow

Royal palaces are among the most significant and spectacular structures of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a time of political absolutism, when immense power was concentrated in the hands of individual rulers. Ambitious architectural projects, especially palaces, were embodiments of the right to rule. Larger and more magnificent than their predecessors, royal palaces in this period functioned as the sovereign's residence and also as the center for government administration. The most influential baroque palace was that of Versailles, begun in the 1660s by Louis Le Vau. Built for King Louis XIV of France, its overwhelming scale and grandeur expressed the king's immense wealth and absolute power. Versailles became the model followed by sovereigns throughout Europe, in the palaces of Rivoli and Caserta in Italy, for instance, and the Kremlin in Russia.