A mansion outside Paris recently set the record for the most expensive home ever sold. Château Louis XIV, which was completed in 2011 but designed to resemble a 17th-century French château, sold for 275 million euros.
The house, if one can refer to it with such a modest term, features an aquarium, home theatre, squash court, two ball rooms, underground nightclub and wine cellar.
Outside, in the 57-acre park in which the château is situated, there’s a gleaming gold-leafed fountain along with an array of flowers, marble statues, bridle paths and a hedged labyrinth, which evoke the genius of Le Notre, the French landscape architect famous for designing the park at Versailles.
There are 10 bedroom suites, a grand reception room with a 52ft-high frescoed dome ceiling, a library, a wine cellar with space for 3,000 bottles and a “meditation room” under the moat circled by an aquarium with huge sturgeon inside.
The property, built on grounds that once housed the Swiss Guards ensuring the protection of Louis XIV, pays various tributes to France’s Sun King. The façade has a genuine monumental bronze and enamel clock identical to the one on the façade of Versailles. It is the work of Saudi developer Emad Khashoggi who employed 200 people to spend three years building the property on the outskirts of Paris.Chateau Louis XIV, a 50,000 sq ft palace that Kim Kardashian considered as a potential wedding location in 2013, is said to have been purchased by a Middle Eastern buyer, who requested anonymity. It crushed the previous record for a price paid for a private home – $221 million for a London penthouse sold in 2011.