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A château (; plural: châteaux) is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor, or a fine country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally, and still most frequently, in French-speaking regions. Nowadays a ''château'' may be any stately residence built in a French style; the term is additionally often used for a winegrower's estate, especially in the Bordeaux region of France.


Definition

The word château is a French word that has entered the English language, where its meaning is more specific than it is in French. The French word ''château'' denotes buildings as diverse as a medieval fortress, a Renaissance palace and a fine 19th-century country house. Care should therefore be taken when translating the French word ''château'' into English, noting the nature of the building in question. Most French châteaux are "
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 ...
s" or fine "
country houses 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 ...
" rather than "castles", and for these, the word "château" is appropriate in English. Sometimes the word "palace" is more appropriate. To give an outstanding example, the Château de Versailles, also called in French ''le palais de Versailles'', is so-called because it was located in the countryside when it was built, but it does not bear any resemblance to a castle, so it is usually known in English as the Palace of Versailles. When clarification is needed in French, the term ''château fort'' is used to describe a fortified castle, such as the Château fort de Roquetaillade. The urban counterpart of a château is a ''
palais Palais () may refer to: * Dance hall, popularly a ''palais de danse'', in the 1950s and 1960s in the UK * ''Palais'', French for palace **Grand Palais, the Grand Palais des Champs-Elysées **Petit Palais, an art museum in Paris * Palais River in t ...
'' in French, which is usually applied only to very grand residences in a city. This usage is again different from that of the term "palace" in English, where there is no requirement that a palace must be in a city, but the word ''palais'' is rarely used for buildings other than the grandest royal residences. The term '' hôtel particulier'' is used in French for an urban "private house" of a grand sort.


Concept

A château is a "power house", as Sir
John Summerson Sir John Newenham Summerson (25 November 1904 – 10 November 1992) was one of the leading British architectural historians of the 20th century. Early life John Summerson was born at Barnstead, Coniscliffe Road, Darlington. His grandfather wo ...
dubbed the British and Irish "
stately homes 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 people ...
" that are the British Isles' architectural counterparts to French châteaux. It is the personal (and usually hereditary) badge of a ''family'' that, with some official rank, locally represents the royal authority; thus, the word château often refers to the dwelling of a member of either the French nobility or royalty. However, some fine châteaux, such as Vaux-le-Vicomte, were built by the essentially high-
bourgeois The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. They ...
—people but recently ennobled: tax-farmers and ministers of Louis XIII and his royal successors. The quality of the residences could vary considerably, from grand châteaux owned by royalty and the wealthy elite near larger towns to run-down châteaux vacated by poor nobility and officials in the countryside, isolated and vulnerable. A château was historically supported by its ''terres'' (lands), composing a
demesne A demesne ( ) or domain was all the land retained and managed by a lord of the manor under the feudal system for his own use, occupation, or support. This distinguished it from land sub-enfeoffed by him to others as sub-tenants. The concept or ...
that rendered the society of the château largely self-sufficient, in the manner of the historic Roman and Early Medieval villa system, (cf. manorialism,
hacienda An ''hacienda'' ( or ; or ) is an estate (or ''finca''), similar to a Roman ''latifundium'', in Spain and the former Spanish Empire. With origins in Andalusia, ''haciendas'' were variously plantations (perhaps including animals or orchards), ...
). The open villas of Rome in the times of Pliny the Elder, Maecenas, and Emperor Tiberius began to be walled-in, and then fortified in the 3rd century AD, thus evolving to ''castellar'' "châteaux". In modern usage, a château retains some enclosures that are distant descendants of these fortifying
outwork An outwork is a minor fortification built or established outside the principal fortification limits, detached or semidetached. Outworks such as ravelins, lunettes (demilunes), flèches and caponiers to shield bastions and fortification curtains ...
s: a fenced, gated, closeable forecourt, perhaps a gatehouse or a keeper's lodge, and supporting outbuildings (stables, kitchens, breweries, bakeries, manservant quarters in the ''garçonnière''). Besides the '' cour d'honneur'' (court of honour) entrance, the château might have an inner ''cour'' ("court"), and inside, in the private residence, the château faces a simply and discreetly enclosed park. In the city of Paris, the Louvre (fortified) and the Luxembourg Palace (the latter originally suburban) were originally referred to as châteaux, but became "palaces" when the city enclosed them. In other French-speaking European regions, such as Wallonia ( Belgium), the word ''château'' is used with the same definition as in France. In Belgium, a strong French architectural influence is evident in the seventeenth-century Château des Comtes de Marchin and the eighteenth-century
Château de Seneffe The Château of Seneffe or Château de Seneffe is an 18th-century château located in the municipality of Seneffe in the province of Hainaut, Wallonia, Belgium. The château is property of the French Community of Belgium and serves as the "Centre ...
. In the United States, the word ''château'' took root selectively – in the Gilded Age resort town of Newport, Rhode Island, large manor homes were called "cottages", but north of Wilmington, Delaware, in the rich, rural "Château Country" centred upon the powerful Du Pont family, the word château is used with its original definition. In Canada, especially in English, château usually denotes a hotel, not a house, and applies only to the country's most elaborate railway hotels, built during the Canadian railroad golden age, such as the
Château Lake Louise The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise is a Fairmont hotel on the eastern shore of Lake Louise, near Banff, Alberta. The original hotel was gradually developed at the turn of the 20th century by the Canadian Pacific Railway and was thus "kin" to it ...
in Lake Louise, Alberta, the
Château Laurier The Fairmont Château Laurier is a hotel with 429 guest rooms in the downtown core of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, located near the intersection of Rideau Street and Sussex Drive and designed in a French Gothic Revival Châteauesque style to comple ...
in Ottawa, the Château Montebello in
Montebello, Quebec Montebello is a municipality located in the Papineau Regional County Municipality of Western Quebec, Canada. At the 2001 census, there were 1,039 permanent residents. The village has a total area of , and is located at the eastern edge of Quebec's ...
, and most famously, the Château Frontenac in Quebec City.


French châteaux—particular regions


Bordeaux region

There are many estates with true châteaux on them in the Bordeaux wine regions, but it is customary for any wine-producing estate since the 19th century, no matter how humble, to prefix its name with "Château". This term became the default way of designating an estate in Bordeaux, in the same way that ''Domaine'' did in
Burgundy Burgundy (; french: link=no, Bourgogne ) is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. The c ...
. Both ''Château'' and ''Domaine'' are aristocratic in implication, but Bordeaux had a better claim to the association: nobles had owned Bordeaux's best vineyards for centuries. Most of Burgundy's best vineyards, in contrast, had been owned by the Church. The term ''Château'' became a permanent verbal fixture in Bordeaux, and it was emulated in other French regions and outside France.
File:Chateau Margaux 01 by-dpc.jpg,
Château Margaux Château Margaux (), archaically La Mothe de Margaux, is a wine estate of Bordeaux wine, and was one of four wines to achieve ''Premier cru'' (first growth) status in the Bordeaux Classification of 1855. The estate's best wines are very expens ...
File:Haut Brion exterior.jpg, Château Haut-Brion File:Château d'Yquem.jpg,
Château d'Yquem Château d'Yquem () is a '' Premier Cru Supérieur'' ( Fr: "Superior First Growth") wine from the Sauternes, Gironde region in the southern part of the Bordeaux vineyards known as Graves. In the Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855, Ch ...
File:Château Cheval-Blanc.jpg,
Château Cheval-Blanc A château (; plural: châteaux) is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor, or a fine country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally, and still most frequently, in French-speaking regions. Nowaday ...
The winery denomination ''Château'' is now protected by French law, and confirmed in 1981 by European Union law, as "traditional appellation". The term Château may be used only if two conditions are fulfilled: * The wine concerned have to be made exclusively from grapes harvested from wine belonging to that vineyard, * The wine-making process was carried out there.


Loire Valley

The Loire Valley (Vallée de la Loire) is home to more than 300 châteaux. They were built between the 10th and 20th centuries, firstly by the French kings followed soon thereafter by the nobility; hence, the Valley is termed "''The Valley of the Kings''". Alternatively, due to its moderate climate, wine-growing soils and rich agricultural land, the Loire Valley is referred to as "''The Garden of France''". The châteaux range from the very large (often now in public hands) to more 'human-scale' châteaux such as the Château de Beaulieu in
Saumur Saumur () is a commune in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France. The town is located between the Loire and Thouet rivers, and is surrounded by the vineyards of Saumur itself, Chinon, Bourgueil, Coteaux du Layon, etc.. Saumur statio ...
or the medieval
Château du Rivau The Château du Rivau is a castle-palace in Lémeré (Indre-et-Loire), in the Touraine region, France. In Rabelais' ''Gargantua'', it was given to captain Tolmere as a reward for his victories in the Picrocholean Wars. In 1429, towards the end ...
close to Chinon which were built of the local
tuffeau Tuffeau stone — in French, simply ''tuffeau'' or ''tufeau'' — is a local limestone of the Loire Valley of France. It is characterized as a chalky or sandy, fine-grained limestone, white to yellowish-cream in appearance, and micaceous (cont ...
stone.


French châteaux—selected examples


Château de Chenonceau

The
Château de Chenonceau The Château de Chenonceau () is a French château spanning the river Cher, near the small village of Chenonceaux, Indre-et-Loire, Centre-Val de Loire. It is one of the best-known châteaux of the Loire Valley. The estate of Chenonceau is firs ...
is a French château spanning the River Cher, near the small village of
Chenonceaux Chenonceaux () is a commune in the French department of Indre-et-Loire, and the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is situated in the valley of the river Cher, a tributary of the Loire, about 26 km (16 mi) east of Tours and on ...
in the Indre-et-Loire
department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...
of the Loire Valley in France. It is one of the best-known châteaux of the Loire valley. The estate of Chenonceau is first mentioned in writing in the 11th century. The current château was built in 1514–1522 on the foundations of an old mill and was later extended to span the river. The bridge over the river was built from 1556 to 1559 to designs by the French Renaissance architect Philibert de l'Orme, and the gallery on the bridge, built from 1570 to 1576 to designs by Jean Bullant.


Château de Dampierre-en-Yvelines

Built by
Jules Hardouin-Mansart Jules Hardouin-Mansart (; 16 April 1646 – 11 May 1708) was a French Baroque architect and builder whose major work included the Place des Victoires (1684–1690); Place Vendôme (1690); the domed chapel of Les Invalides (1690), and the Grand T ...
, 1675–1683 for the
duc de Chevreuse Duke of Chevreuse ( French ''Duc de Chevreuse'') was a French title of nobility, elevated from the barony of Chevreuse in 1545. Originally created for Jean de Brosse, Duc d'Étampes, it was transferred in 1555 to Charles of Guise, the Cardinal of L ...
, Colbert's son-in-law, the Château de Dampierre is a French Baroque château of manageable size. Protected behind fine wrought iron double gates, the main block and its outbuildings (''corps de logis''), linked by balustrades, are ranged symmetrically around a dry paved and gravelled ''cour d'honneur''. Behind, the central axis is extended between the former parterres, now mown hay. The park with formally shaped water was laid out by
André Le Notre André — sometimes transliterated as Andre — is the French and Portuguese form of the name Andrew, and is now also used in the English-speaking world. It used in France, Quebec, Canada and other French-speaking countries. It is a variation o ...
.


Château de Montsoreau

The Château de Montsoreau is the only Château of the Loire Valley to have been built directly in the Loire riverbed. It is also one of the first example of a renaissance architecture in France. Montsoreau was built in 1453 by Jean II de Chambes (first counsellor of
Charles VII of France Charles VII (22 February 1403 – 22 July 1461), called the Victorious (french: le Victorieux) or the Well-Served (), was King of France from 1422 to his death in 1461. In the midst of the Hundred Years' War, Charles VII inherited the throne of F ...
and ambassador of France to
Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400  ...
and to Turkey) by order of the king soon after the end of the Hundred's years war. The French dramatist
Alexandre Dumas Alexandre Dumas (, ; ; born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (), 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas père (where '' '' is French for 'father', to distinguish him from his son Alexandre Dumas fils), was a French writer ...
made the château de Montsoreau world famous with his trilogy on the French Wars of Religion of which '' the lady of Monsoreau'' is the second volume.


Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte

The Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte is a baroque French château located in
Maincy Maincy () is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. The chateau of Vaux-le-Vicomte is located in the commune. Demographics Inhabitants are called ''Maincéens''. See also *Communes of t ...
, near Melun, 55 km southeast of Paris in the Seine-et-Marne département of France. It was built by
Louis Le Vau Louis Le Vau (1612 – 11 October 1670) was a French Baroque architect, who worked for Louis XIV of France. He was an architect that helped develop the French Classical style in the 17th Century.''Encyclopedia of World Biography''"Louis Le Vau", ...
from 1658 to 1661 for Nicolas Fouquet, Marquis de Belle-Isle ( Belle-Île-en-Mer), Viscount of Melun and Vaux, the superintendent of finances of Louis XIV. The interior was lavishly decorated by painter Charles Le Brun. Louis Le Vau as well as Charles Le Brun were later called by Louis XIV to work at Versailles.


Château de Versailles

The
Palace of Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 19 ...
, or in French ''Château de Versailles'', is a royal château in Versailles, in the Île-de-France region of France. When the château was built, Versailles was a country village; today, however, it is a wealthy suburb of Paris, some 20 kilometres (12 miles) southwest of the French capital. The court of Versailles was the centre of political power in France from 1682, when Louis XIV moved from Paris, until the
royal family A royal family is the immediate family of kings/queens, emirs/emiras, sultans/ sultanas, or raja/ rani and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an emperor or empress, and the term ...
was forced to return to the capital in October 1789 after the beginning of the French Revolution. Versailles is therefore famous not only as a building but as a symbol of the system of absolute monarchy of the ''
Ancien Régime ''Ancien'' may refer to * the French word for "ancient, old" ** Société des anciens textes français * the French for "former, senior" ** Virelai ancien ** Ancien Régime ** Ancien Régime in France {{disambig ...
''.


Gallery

File:Chateau de Montsoreau Museum of contemporary art.jpg, Château de Montsoreau File:Chambord Castle Northwest facade.jpg, Château de Chambord File:The Chateau near the Loire river - Saumur, France - panoramio.jpg,
Château de Saumur A château (; plural: châteaux) is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor, or a fine country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally, and still most frequently, in French-speaking regions. Nowaday ...
File:Castle Brissac 2007 02.jpg,
Château de Brissac The Château de Brissac is a French château in the Brissac-Quincé area of the commune of Brissac Loire Aubance, located in the department of Maine-et-Loire, France. The property is owned by the Cossé-Brissac family, whose head bears the F ...
File:AzeyParkseite.jpg,
Château d'Azay-le-Rideau The Château d'Azay-le-Rideau () is located in the town of Azay-le-Rideau in the French département of Indre-et-Loire. Built between 1518 and 1527, this château is considered one of the foremost examples of early French renaissance architecture. ...
File:Ancy-le-Franc - Cour interieure 1.jpg, Château d'Ancy-le-Franc File:Oiron château.JPG,
Château d'Oiron The Château d'Oiron is located in Oiron, in the Deux-Sèvres ''département'' of western France. It has its origins in the 15th century war with the English for control of France when a victorious Charles VII of France gave the domain and great ...
File:Chateau de Hautefort 05.jpg,
Château de Hautefort The Château de Hautefort is a French château and gardens located in the town of Hautefort in the Dordogne. The castle was originally a medieval fortress that was reconstructed in the 17th century, and embellished with a jardin à la française. I ...
File:Château du Champ-de-Bataille (Eure) - Façade sur les jardins (49748791011).jpg, Château du Champ-de-Bataille File:Épinay-Champlâtreux (95), château de Champlâtreux, façade principale ouest.jpg, Château de Champlâtreux File:Château de Vigny de face.jpg,
Château de Vigny The Château de Vigny is a château in the commune of Vigny, Val d'Oise, France. It was built in 1504 on the site of a mediaeval structure for Cardinal Georges d'Amboise Georges d'Amboise (1460 – May 25, 1510) was a French Roman Catholic ...
File:Saint-Goazec (29) Château de Trévarez Façade sud 05.JPG,
Château de Trévarez The Château de Trévarez is a stately home in the commune of Saint-Goazec in Finistère, in Brittany, France. The former manor house was built in the 16th century (the west part) and the 17th century (the east part). The present structure was com ...
File:Chateau de Ferrieres.jpg, Château de Ferrières


See also

*
Châteauesque Châteauesque (or Francis I style,Whiffen, Marcus, ''American Architecture Since 1780: A guide to the styles'', The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1969, p. 142. or in Canada, the Château Style) is a Revivalist architectural style based on the Fr ...
* List of castles in France *
List of châteaux in Languedoc-Roussillon This is the list of châteaux, which are located in Languedoc-Roussillon. Aude * Château d'Aguilar, in Tuchan * Château d'Albières, in Albières * Château d’Arques, in Arques * Château d'Auriac, in Auriac * Château de Blanchef ...


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chateau * Architecture in France House types