A cavaliers' house or cavalier house (from " cavalier" meaning horseman or cavalryman) was a building that formed part of the ensemble of a

stately home An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...

palace A palace is a grand residence, especially a royal residence, or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word is derived from the Latin name palātium, for Palatine Hill in Rome which ...

or '' schloss'' and was used to accommodate the royal or princely household. They emerged in the

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

era. The name is derived from the original use of such buildings for accommodating cavalrymen. Later it became synonymous for the building attached to a palace or stately home that was not used by the royal family themselves, but by courtiers, high officials, couriers or guests. In Baroque ensembles, cavalier houses and palace were frequently around a cour d'honneur and could be linked by galleries or stand entirely separate. There were no hard and fast rules, so that a cavalier house could sometimes be found in the palace park. Depending on the area, size and importance of the actual ''

residenz Residenz () is a German word for "place of living", now obsolete except in the formal sense of an official residence. A related term, Residenzstadt, denotes a city where a sovereign ruler resided, therefore carrying a similar meaning as the modern ...

'' – and the status of its noble family – a cavalier house could even be a ''schloss'' in its own right or take on a more modest appearance sometimes resembling a burgher's house.

Examples

Austria

* Cavalier House, Klessheim, Klessheim Palace, Salzburg state

Germany

* Cavalier house, Gifhorn, Lower Saxony, today a museum * Cavalier house inside the larger

Schloss Pyrmont Schloss Pyrmont, sometimes called Pyrmont Castle, was a ''schloss'' and the summer residence of the counts of Spiegelberg and counts of Waldeck-Pyrmont in the present-day German town of Bad Pyrmont. The current building dates to the 18th centur ...

Bad Pyrmont Bad Pyrmont (, also: ; West Low German: ) is a town in the district of Hamelin-Pyrmont, in Lower Saxony, Germany, with a population close to 19,000. It is located on the river Emmer, about west of the Weser. Bad Pyrmont is a popular spa resort ...

, Lower Saxony * Cavalier house,

Langenargen Langenargen is a town in the district of Bodensee in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. Sports Langenargen is an ideal venue for sports such as sailing. The town's location on the shores of the Bodensee ( Lake Constance) provides smooth waters e ...

, Baden-Württemberg * Cavalier house, Spremberg, Brandenburg * Cavalier houses at

Altenstein Palace Schloss Altenstein is a '' schloss'', or palace, upon a rocky hill on the south-western slope of the Thuringian Forest, not far from Eisenach, Thuringia, Germany. It was the summer residence of the Dukes of Saxe-Meiningen, and is surrounded ...

Bad Liebenstein Bad Liebenstein is a municipality and spa town in Wartburgkreis district of Thuringia, Germany. Geography Location Bad Liebenstein is situated 25 km north of Meiningen, and 18 km south of Eisenach. It is located in the ''Mittelgebirge' ...

, Thuringia * Cavalier houses of Königs Wusterhausen, Brandenburg * Cavalier house and hunting lodge in

Darmstadt-Bessungen Bessungen is a district in the South of the city of Darmstadt in Hesse. History Until 1888, Bessungen was an independent municipality. The reputation as the oldest part of Darmstadt goes back to Bessungen being first mentioned in 1002. In fact ...

, Hesse * Cavalier house at

Moritzburg Castle Moritzburg Castle (german: Schloss Moritzburg) or Moritzburg Palace is a Baroque palace in Moritzburg, in the German state of Saxony, about northwest of the Saxon capital, Dresden. The castle has four round towers and lies on a symmetrical art ...

, Saxony * Cavalier house of Echzeller Burg,

Echzell Echzell is a municipality in the Wetteraukreis, in Hesse, Germany. It is located approximately 35 kilometers northeast of Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populo ...

, Hesse, which is actually a palace * Cavalier house of

Rheinsberg Castle Rheinsberg Palace (german: Schloss Rheinsberg) lies in the municipality of Rheinsberg, about northwest of Berlin in the German district of Landkreis Ostprignitz-Ruppin, Ostprignitz-Ruppin. The palace on the eastern shore of the is a classic exam ...

, Brandenburg

Literature / Sources

*Hans-Joachim Kadatz: ''Seemanns Lexikon der Architektur'', Seemann, Leipzig, 2001. {{ISBN, 3363006136. Palaces