Gardens of Versailles
Grand Canal
With a length of 1,500 metres and a width of 62 metres, the "Grand Canal", which was built between 1668 and 1671, physically and visually prolongs the east-west axis to the walls of the "Grand Parc". During the "Ancien Régime", the "Grand Canal" served as a venue for boating parties. In 1674, as a result of a series of diplomatic arrangements that benefited Louis XIV, the king ordered the construction of "Petite Venise" – Little Venice. Located at the junction of the "Grand Canal" and the junction of the northern transversal branch, Little Venice housed the caravels and yachts that were received from The Netherlands and the gondolas and gondoliers received as gifts from the Doge of Venice, hence the name (Marie 1968; Nolhac 1901, 1925; Thompson 2006; Verlet 1985).
Danube–Oder Canal
On December 8, 1939 Rudolf Hess inaugurated the then-named "Adolf Hitler Canal", today Gliwice Canal (Polish: "Kanał Gliwicki") from Kędzierzyn-Koźle at the Oder River to the city of Gliwice, that replaced the historic Kłodnica Canal finished in 1812. At the same time, Hess also performed the groundbreaking ceremony for the further "Donau-Oder-Kanal". The work on the Upper Silesian side already discontinued in 1940. Only a few kilometres of the planned 40-km long channel from Vienna to Angern at the Morava River were actually dug in the years up to 1943, mainly in the areas around the Lobau floodplain in the Donaustadt district of Vienna and the adjacent town of Groß-Enzersdorf. The branch-off at the Danube, just under 100 meters long, is still clearly recognizable today, connecting the "Ölhafen Lobau" of the OMV oil company. Two further sections are today used for swimming and fishing.