A few blocks from the lavish Palace of Versailles, hidden behind a small side street, you can find a commemoration of one of the most pivotal events in French history.
Built so that the cream of the French nobility could have a place to play Jeu de Paume, a precursor to modern tennis, this large wooden room played a very minor role in the life of the nearby palace until the fateful year of 1789.
That May, King Louis XVI called together delegates from across France to address the kingdom’s economic crisis. Rising tensions between the king and representatives of the Third Estate (everyone who wasn’t in the nobility or clergy) came to a head on June 20. Shut out of their regular meeting hall and fearing a royal crackdown, the Third Estate delegates rushed to the nearest space they could find that would fit them all – the royal tennis court.
Led by principled polymath Jean Sylvain Bailly, the delegates declared themselves to be the National Assembly of France, and swore an oath not to disband until France had received a constitution. As the first major assertion of Third Estate power independent of the king, the Tennis Court Oath is considered by many historians to mark the official start of the French Revolution. Since June 30, 1789, the National Assembly has continued to exist in some form or another down to the present day.
The tennis court was renovated in 2022, and now hosts a mini museum to the Revolution. In addition to a statue of Bailly and the busts of many other revolutionary oath-takers, you can see an original Jeu de Paume racket and architecural models of the tennis court and the Bastille prison. The room also features a massive recreation of the unfinished Tennis Court Oath paiting by famous revolutionary propagandist (and later Napoleonic propagandist) Jacques Louis David.
Source: www.atlasobscura.com
