Monday, Sept. 2, 2024 at 10 p.m. on KPBS TV / Stream now with KPBS Passport
The Palais de la Cité was Versailles before Versailles: a spectacular palace in the heart of Paris, with a history spanning 2,000 years – from Julius Caesar’s invasion of Gaulle to Marie Antoinette’s imprisonment as she awaited execution. So how was this significant structure erased from memory and built over by successive government buildings? In “Paris: The Mystery of the Lost Palace,” experts dive into this historical dilemma and work to fill in the many gaps surrounding the lost palace’s construction and disappearance.
The program strips away layers of political, military, and religious history long hidden from view with a single goal: to gather clues from as far back as 52 BC to digitally reconstruct the lost palace, piecing together the size, shape and texture of the palace with scientists and historians.
![Experts dive into this mystery and work to fill in the many gaps surrounding the lost palace’s construction and disappearance.](https://cdn.kpbs.org/dims4/default/87f6631/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1754x1080+76+0/resize/880x542!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fkpbs-brightspot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2F1b%2F01%2Fee9b59ad48b18ad6e4463c55f0d1%2Fphoto-5.jpg)
The documentary combines science, history, and architecture to revive this lost piece of Parisian construction and searches for answers of how and why the once majestic site would come to be a phantom of the past.
!["Paris: The Mystery of the Lost Palace" strips away layers of political, military, and religious history long hidden from view on a quest to digitally reconstruct the lost palace.](https://cdn.kpbs.org/dims4/default/f22a09d/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1754x1080+60+0/resize/880x542!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fkpbs-brightspot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fc9%2F48%2F8bb70afc43489494ca52f5fba265%2Fphoto-8.jpg)
Watch On Your Schedule: "Paris: The Mystery of the Lost Palace" is available to stream with KPBS Passport, a member benefit that unlocks exclusive shows and extra content on the PBS app. Contribute a tax-deductible* gift of $5 per month or an annual gift of $60 or more. Your donation will help KPBS serve your community through media that educates, inspires, and entertains.
!["Paris: The Mystery of the Lost Palace" gathers clues from as far back as 52 BC to piece together the lost palace.](https://cdn.kpbs.org/dims4/default/9836bd1/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1754x1080+166+0/resize/880x542!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fkpbs-brightspot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2F23%2F74%2F485b8f6f4830a1ad06c59c5435c1%2Fphoto-3.jpg)
![The Palais de la Cité was Versailles before Versailles: a spectacular palace in the heart of Paris.](https://cdn.kpbs.org/dims4/default/1e9ee9b/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1754x1080+0+0/resize/880x542!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fkpbs-brightspot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fe7%2F6a%2F3ba0408e4ecc9c5957ab210b1f22%2Fphoto-6.jpg)
Produced by Capre Presse-Iconem - Centre des Monuments Nationaux. Acquired by American Public Television from Newen Connect