Versailles, Kentucky, United States

🇺🇸 Versailles is a home rule-class city in Woodford County, Kentucky, United States. It lies 13 miles (21 kilometers) by road west of Lexington and is part of the Lexington-Fayette Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is the county seat of Woodford County.

History Versailles was founded on June 23, 1792, on 80 acres (32 hectares) of land owned by Hezekiah Briscoe, at the time only a child. His guardian, Marquis Calmes, named the town after Versailles, France, in honor of General Lafayette, a family friend and hero of the American Revolution. Located in what became known as the Bluegrass Region of Kentucky, where farmers also raised thoroughbred horses and other high-quality livestock, the city was officially incorporated on February 13, 1837. It was briefly occupied during the American Civil War by both Confederate and Union forces.

In 1870, black residents of Versailles took part in a demonstration against police violence after a white officer struck a black man with his pistol. Demonstrators formed armed pickets and guarded roads in and out of Versailles. Two of the leaders were subsequently lynched by a local militia company.

Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 2.8 square miles (7.3 km²), all land.

Economy In the Inner Bluegrass Region, the area is a centre for horse breeding and training, and for thoroughbred and standardbred racehorses and saddlebred pleasure horses.

Thoroughbred farms include Woodburn Stud, Lane's End Farm, and WinStar Farm.

Located in Versailles is Woodford Reserve Distillery, a station on the Bourbon Trail, and the Bluegrass Railroad and Museum.

Film industry Most of the small-town scenes in the movie Elizabethtown (2005) were filmed in Versailles. It was also the setting of the movie Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story (2005). The cemetery scene in the film Secretariat (2010), about one of Kentucky's major race and stud horses, was filmed at Pisgah Pike Church. The Flim-Flam Man (1967) was filmed at several locations near Versailles. The opening sequence was filmed at Paynes Depot, and a car chase was filmed on Clifton Road.

Education Versailles has a lending library, a branch of the Woodford County Public Library.