Largest royal palaces in the world! These massive palaces are the biggest palaces that aren't castles.

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Number 12. Palace of Versailles
A historical monument and UNESCO World Heritage site, the Palace of Versailles is renown for its beauty, size, and cultural importance. It began as the royal quarters of French royalty with Louis XIV in 1682 and was used as such until the reign of Louis XVI and the French Revolution in 1789. The Palace of Versailles measures 679,000 square feet in area, but the whole of the palace grounds holds the title of largest royal domain in the world at 2,014 acres! Within its walls lie a number of famous attractions such as the Royal Opera and the ceremonial Hall of Mirrors. Over 7 million visitors are drawn to the Palace of Versailles each year, making it the second most popular attraction in France after the Louvre.

Number 10. Buckingham Palace
With 775 rooms, the largest private garden in London covering 40 acres of surrounding space, and and a square footage of 828,000, Buckingham Palace is both one of the most impressive and one of the most famous palaces in the world. This royal residence was first built in 1703 as a townhouse for the Duke of Buckingham, but in 1761 King George III purchased the home for his wife, Queen Charlotte, and it henceforth was known as The Queen's House. But as the building expanded in the early 19th century, it grew to be less of a townhouse and more of a palace with the addition of three wings and a central courtyard. When Queen Victoria rose to power in 1837, Buckingham Palace became the official home to the British monarchy and continues to serve as a royal headquarters for the United Kingdom in modern times.

Number 5. Forbidden City
Though the entirety of the Forbidden City's palace complex equates to over 7.75 million square feet, making it the largest palace complex in the world, the actual main structure fills an area of just 1.61 million square feet. Serving as China's imperial palace from 1420 to 1912, this great building was the home of many emperors, their families, and their royal courts from the reign of the Ming dynasty until the end of the Qing dynasty. For just under 500 years the Forbidden City was the political center of the Chinese government, but has been under the control of the Palace Museum since 1925 with much of the artifacts from prior residing dynasties making up a majority of their exhibits. Over sixteen million people now visit this historically sacred World Heritage Site annually, and it remains one of the most culturally significant structures in all of China.