The commission
Versailles is a UNESCO World Heritage site holding 90,000 artworks across five centuries, and it receives more visitors than almost any cultural institution on earth. It is also, for this particular story, the room where it happened: the court where Louis XVI received Benjamin Franklin, where France formally recognised American sovereignty in 1778, and where one of the treaties ending the war was signed in 1783.
The palace wanted that history told inside the building where it took place, without altering the building in any way. The requirement was absolute: no dark room, no structural intervention, no compromise to a heritage interior of the highest sensitivity, and no departure from the historical record.
Light of Liberty is the flagship immersive element of 1776–2026: An American Season, the palace’s full programme marking the anniversary. It was announced jointly by the Public Establishment of the Palace, Museum and National Estate of Versailles and Yalla.Digital in June 2026.
“This ultimate XR experience perfectly illustrates the unique and intimate bond between the Château de Versailles and the United States. We are proud of our partnership with Yalla.Digital to offer this new cultural program that combines cutting-edge technology with rich historical content.”Louis-Samuel Berger — Deputy General Administrator, Public Establishment of the Palace, Museum and National Estate of Versailles
The experience
Inside the Pavillon d’Orléans, visitors wearing lightweight passthrough headsets move freely through the space as the palace of 1778 assembles around them. Guided by the voice of the Marquis de Lafayette, they meet Benjamin Franklin, Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, take part in naval battles and diplomatic exchanges, and follow the decisions that committed France to the American cause — an arc that runs from the Enlightenment through revolution and diplomacy to the Siege of Yorktown.
The experience runs in three stages across approximately 15 minutes, with more than twelve interactive moments, for 30 to 40 standing visitors per session.
The real rooms never disappear. Passthrough XR layers the reconstruction into the physical space, so the architecture, the other visitors, and the palace itself remain visible throughout. The site stays the protagonist.
How it was built
- Historical accuracy, verified at the source. The experience is built on a documented historical narrative developed in close collaboration with Paul Chaine and the curatorial teams of the Château de Versailles, including curatorial review and historical guidance at every stage. Louis-Charles-Auguste Couder’s 1836 painting The Siege of Yorktown, 17 October 1781 — from the Versailles collections — serves as the central visual anchor of the experience.
- Nothing was altered. No structural modification was made to the Pavillon d’Orléans. Passthrough XR requires no dark room, no permanent fitting, and no intervention in the fabric of the building. The hardware is removable.
- Built for Versailles-scale throughput. Free-roaming, multi-visitor sessions accommodating 30 to 40 standing visitors at a time, designed around the operational reality of one of the world’s highest-traffic cultural sites.
- Delivered as one engagement. Yalla.Digital led writing and curation, development, production design and technical solutions, with operational support in collaboration with Firstep Production of France. Ticketing — pricing, bundling, dynamic offers and points of sale across the Château’s website and on-site — was developed jointly with Versailles.
The numbers
1 Château de Versailles, 2025 attendance across the estate: 6.3 million to the Palace, Trianon and estate sites, plus 2.1 million for Château de Versailles Spectacle. 81% of visitors came from outside France.
Light of Liberty anchors the palace’s America 250 programming through January 2027, including the anniversary celebrations of 4 July 2026. The Château de Versailles provides promotional support across its website, social channels, email databases and visitor communications, and both organisations promote the experience internationally.
What it asked of the institution
For institutions weighing a deployment of their own, the division of responsibility matters more than the technology.
Versailles provided the story, the curatorial authority, the historical guidance and the sign-off. Paul Chaine and the palace’s curatorial teams reviewed the narrative throughout. Nothing reached visitors without the institution’s approval.
Yalla.Digital provided everything else: writing and curation, historical research, 3D production, technical delivery, hardware, installation, on-site operations, and the commercial and ticketing structure — built with the palace rather than handed to it.
The palace did not manage a group of suppliers or absorb an operational burden. It retained authorship of its own history and approved the work at every stage.
“Our passthrough XR platform enables visitors to remain fully present within a real historic environment while experiencing powerful new layers of narrative, interpretation, and historical context.”Kevin Bermeister — Chairman, Yalla.Digital
Why it matters for other institutions
Versailles operates at the strictest end of every standard that governs a heritage venue — conservation, curatorial, reputational. An institution of that stature does not take a risk on an unproven format inside its own walls.
Its decision to commission passthrough XR, and to develop it with Yalla.Digital, is a working demonstration that immersive reconstruction can meet the highest institutional bar: zero structural change to a World Heritage interior, curatorial control retained by the institution, and historical accuracy verified at the source.
If Versailles could say yes to this, the question for most institutions is no longer whether the format is appropriate. It is whether the story is ready.
For the commercial structures behind deployments like this, including capex-free models, see how Yalla’s commercial models work. For a deployment with published return figures, see the Davidson Center case study.
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