Before the construction of the Palace, the church in the village of Versailles was dedicated to Saint Julien de Brioude. This church was demolished in 1679 when the extension of the annexes of the castle.

In 1684, Louis XIV laid the first stone of a new building, the church of Notre Dame, which became the heart of the new city. The current Saint Louis is in the early seventeenth century, a hunting reserve of walls enclose called to Deer Park.

Around 1685, Louis XIV, despite his love of hunting, decides to sacrifice to Deer Park to be built housing made necessary by population growth. He concedes the land to build after himself regular grid layout of streets, with two major axes: rue Royale and rue d’Anjou. 
  

  
The first chapel

Louis XIV in 1714 promised to “bear the expense” of a new parish. It was not until the reign of Louis XV that this promise be answered.
It begins with a temporary chapel located between rue d’Anjou and Tournelles along the rue de Satory. Dedicated to St. Louis, it was inaugurated in 1727 and initially regarded as a mere branch of Notre Dame.

In 1730, Charles Bishop of Ventimiglia, archbishop of Paris, said the parish free and independent. But the chapel is too early to close the local population. A project is asked Robert de Cotte, first architect of the king, for a large church to be the counterpart of Notre Dame built in 1684 by Jules Hardouin-Mansart. The architect provides plans, but for some unknown reason, probably financial, the project is not executed immediately.

The church of Saint Louis

After the death of Robert de Cotte in 1635, Jacques Hardouin-Mansart for Sagonne last representative of the famous dynasty of architects and grand-son of Jules Hardouin Mansart, was given the project the work will finally be able to start.

On 12 June 1743, the king laid the first stone of the building at a ceremony presided over by Monsignor Ventimiglia, archbishop of Paris. The king, accompanied by a dolphin, place itself in a cavity dug under the first pillar of the sanctuary, gospel side, a gold medal and four silver medals.
Louis XV and then went to the yard of a house in the Rue des Vosges “see a small model that Mr. Mansart was the church of Saint Louis, which is highly accurate and detailed,” and he withdrew satisfied. The last ten years, funded works which the body receives the income of vacant church property.

The inauguration was held on 24 August 1754 in the absence of the royal family: the day the Dauphine, Marie Josephe of Saxony, has given birth to a son, the future Louis XVI.
The next day 25 August is celebrated with solemnity the feast day of Saint Louis.
In 1755 the king offers six bells whose names and sponsors are known to the parish registers.
The old church was shot in 1760 and built the presbytery in its location. The large size of it due to the importance of the clergy attached to the service of Saint Louis. The parish is served by Lazaristes, priests of the Congregation of the Mission founded by Saint Vincent de Paul.

In 1764, stores load their architect Louis-François Trouard complete the interior of St. Louis and build a chapel for the catechisms 

  
  
  
  
The time of the Revolution.

On 4 May 1789, when opening the States-General, the solemn procession of the Three Orders went to Notre Dame in St. Louis and is the chair of Saint Louis that Monseigneur de la Fare denounces the abuse of the court. Several meetings of the States are held in St. Louis in June.
In 1790, Versailles became the seat of a bishopric. The first constitutional bishop, Mr. Oats, chose Notre Dame cathedral. In St. Louis, the Lazaristes who have unanimously refused to take the oath were expelled and their property confiscated. One of them, Jacques Henri Gruyer, will die a martyr in 1792.

At the end of 1792 Saint Louis, closed to the Catholic church becomes “Temple of Abundance”. A farmer is painted on the front of the church where clubs meet. The silver coins are sent to the mint, the bells melted and schedules filed at the Museum Central des Arts in Paris.

Despite all this the ministry has never stopped. Twenty priests to devote themselves to risk their lives during the Revolution. Clandestine chapels were opened in different houses in the neighborhood. The Lazaristes who refused to take an oath to serve in secrecy. The registers of baptisms and marriages remain in our records, testimony of their courage and loyalty. 

   
  The church became cathedral

Once the Catholic worship was restored, the bishop took the constitutional succession of Mr. Oats, Mr. Clement prefers St. Louis at Notre Dame and so the church became a cathedral in 1797. Monsignor Charrier de la Roche, first legitimate bishop of Versailles, to ratify this choice. It was solemnly enthroned in St. Louis on 27 May 1802 and on 3 January 1805, he has the joy of welcoming in the cathedral the pope Pius VII came to Paris for the coronation of the Emperor. An inscription affixed in the chapel of the Virgin Mary commemorates this event.

After the revolutionary turmoil in the church is new and furnished with ornaments and sacred vessels. It owes much to Charles X and Louis-Philippe who re trim, confessionals, altars lining.

Consecration

In 1843, Monsignor Blanquart de Bailleul dedicated the cathedral which had been blessed during his inauguration.

The work of the nineteenth century

Following a vow made during the cholera epidemic of 1832, the chapel of the Virgin is redone and decorated with stained glass windows of the Manufacture de Sèvres. The work lasted from 1840 to 1848.
From 1853 to 1866 glasses of white high windows of the choir and the chapels were replaced by stained-glass windows. 

In 1905, the inventory ordered by the law of separation and performed despite the strong protests of Bishop Game causes great tumult in the neighborhood.
In 1906, the cathedral is classified as historical monuments.

In 2000, in response to the directives of Vatican II and end a provisional statement, a new development of the choir of the church at the crossing is under consideration. Incorporating a design by Robert de Cotte, Chauffert-Yvart Bruno, architect of buildings in France, has a stone emmarchement oval. The sculptor Philippe Kaeppelin creates the altar, the ambo and the headquarters of celebrants.