HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

A court of honor ( ; ) is the principal and formal approach and forecourt of a large building. It is usually defined by two secondary wings projecting forward from the main central block ('' corps de logis''), sometimes with a fourth side, consisting of a low wing or a railing. The
Palace of Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, in the Yvelines, Yvelines Department of Île-de-France, Île-de-France region in Franc ...
(''illustration'') and Blenheim Palace (''plan'') both feature such entrance courts.


Definition

Technically, the term ''cour d'honneur'' can be used of any large building whether public or residential, ancient or modern, which has a symmetrical courtyard laid out in this way.


History

Some 16th-century symmetrical Western European country houses built on U-shaped groundplans resulted in a sheltered central door in a main range that was embraced between projecting wings, but the formalized ''cour d'honneur'' is first found in the great
palace A palace is a large residence, often serving as a royal residence or the home for a head of state or another high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word is derived from the Latin name palātium, for Palatine Hill in Rome whi ...
s and
mansion A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word ''manse'' originally defined a property l ...
s of 17th-century Europe, where it forms the principal approach and ceremonial entrance to the building. Its open courtyard is presented like the classical permanent theatre set of a proscenium stage, such as the built Roman set of opposed ''palazzi'' in a perspective street at Palladio's
Teatro Olimpico The ("Olympic Theatre") is a theatre in Vicenza, northern Italy, constructed in 1580–1585. It was the final design by the Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio and was not completed until after his death. The ''trompe-l'œil'' onstag ...
(Vicenza, 1584). Like the theatre set, the built environment is defined and enclosed from the more public space by ornate
wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.05%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4.5%), or 0.25 for low carbon "mild" steel. Wrought iron is manufactured by heating and melting high carbon cast iron in an ...
gilded railings. A later development replaced the railings with an open architectural columnar screen, as at Palais Royal (Paris),
Schönbrunn Palace Schönbrunn Palace (Austrian German, German: Schloss Schönbrunn ) was the main summer residence of the House of Habsburg, Habsburg rulers, located in Hietzing, the 13th district of Vienna. The name ''Schönbrunn'' (meaning "beautiful spring") ha ...
(Vienna), Alexander Palace (Saint Petersburg), or Henry Holland's Ionic screen formerly at Carlton House, London (''illustrated below''). Examples of a ''cour d'honneur'' can be found in many of the most notable
Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...
and classicizing buildings of Europe including the Palazzo Pitti, one of the first 16th century residences to open a ''cour d'honneur'' in the Pitti's case by embracing three sides of an existing public space. Other 16th century urban ''palazzi'' remained resolutely enclosed, like Palazzo Farnese, Rome. In Rome, the wings of Carlo Maderno's Palazzo Barberini design (1627), were the first that reached forward from a central block to create a ''cour d'honneur'' floorplan. On a condensed, urban scale the formula is expressed in Parisian private houses, '' hôtels particuliers'' built ''entre cour et jardin'' (), between court and garden, as can be seen at the Hôtel de Besenval. In these plans, the street front may be expressed as a range of buildings not unlike the ordinary houses (''maisons'') that flank it, but with a grand, often arched, doorway, through which a carriage could pass into the ''cour d'honneur'' secreted behind. In a cramped site, one of the flanking walls of the ''cour d'honneur'' may be no more than an architectural screen, balancing the wing of the hôtel opposite it, which would often contain domestic offices and a stable. On a grander scale, the Palais Royal was laid out in just this manner, among the first Paris ''hôtels particuliers'' to have a ''cour d'honneur'', which once was separated from the public street by a wrought iron grille, later by an open architectural screen, with its grand open ''jardin'' behind, now a public space. Nearby, the Tuileries Palace is gone: but the ''cour d'honneur'' with its Arc du Carrousel remains, as do the
Tuileries Gardens The Tuileries Garden (, ) is a public garden between the Louvre and the Place de la Concorde in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France. Created by Catherine de' Medici as the garden of the Tuileries Palace in 1564, it was opened to the public in ...
behind the former palace's site. In densely built cities disposed on a rigorously democratic grid plan such as New York, private houses with a ''cour d'honneur'' were rare, even in the Gilded Age; the Villard Houses on Madison Avenue and the former William K. Vanderbilt House on the Plaza were the rare exceptions. In London,
Burlington House Burlington House is a building on Piccadilly in Mayfair, London. It was originally a private English Baroque and then Neo-Palladian mansion owned by the Earl of Burlington, Earls of Burlington. It was significantly expanded in the mid-19th cent ...
retains its ''cour d'honneur'', whereas
Buckingham Palace Buckingham Palace () is a royal official residence, residence in London, and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and r ...
's is no longer extant, as it was remodeled to be enclosed on all four sides, thus becoming (and now known as) a quadrangle.


Gallery

File:Carltonhs.jpg, Henry Holland's Ionic screen fronts a shallow ''cour d'honneur'' at the
Prince Regent A prince regent or princess regent is a prince or princess who, due to their position in the line of succession, rules a monarchy as regent in the stead of a monarch, e.g., as a result of the sovereign's incapacity (minority or illness) or ab ...
's Carlton House in Pall Mall, London File:Palbarberini.jpg, Palazzo Barberini: without railings the entrance court is still public space File:Villard Exterior 118503pv.jpg, The Villard Houses facing
Madison Avenue Madison Avenue is a north-south avenue in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, New York, that carries northbound one-way traffic. It runs from Madison Square (at 23rd Street) to meet the southbound Harlem River Drive at 142nd Stree ...
, New York File:Apeldoorn Paleis Het Loo 1.jpg,
Het Loo Palace Paleis Het Loo ( , meaning "The wikt:lea#English, Lea") is a palace in Apeldoorn, Netherlands, built by the House of Orange-Nassau. History The symmetry, symmetrical Dutch Baroque architecture, Dutch Baroque building was designed by Jacob Roman ...
Apeldoorn Apeldoorn (; Dutch Low Saxon: ) is a municipality and city in the province of Gelderland in the centre of the Netherlands. The municipality of Apeldoorn, including the villages of Beekbergen, Loenen (Apeldoorn), Loenen, Ugchelen and Hoenderloo ...
, the Netherlands File:Noordeinde Palace.jpg, Noordeinde Palace
The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...
, the Netherlands


Further reading

* * *


References


External links

{{commons category, Cours d'honneur Architectural history Courtyards