Château
61914
221202185
2008-06-23T14:14:39Z
JAnDbot
1725149
robot Removing: ceb, ja Modifying: de, sk
[[Image:Château de Chenonceau - west view from Catherine de Medici Gardens 1a (4 May 2006).JPG|thumb|right|300px| Château de Chenonceau in the Loire valley, France]]
[[Image:Rural French chateau.jpg|thumb|right|300px|A rural château in France.]]
:''For other senses of this word, see [[château (disambiguation)]].''
A '''château''' (plural ''châteaux'') is a [[manor house]] or residence of the [[lord of the manor]] or a country house of [[nobility]] or [[gentry]], with or without fortifications, originally - and still most frequently - in [[French language|French]]-speaking regions. Where clarification is needed, a fortified château (that is, a [[castle]]) is called a ''château fort'' , such as [[Château de Roquetaillade|Château fort de Roquetaillade]]. Care should be taken when translating the word château into [[English language|English]]: it is not used in the same way as "castle" is in English, and most châteaux are more appropriately described as "[[palace]]s" or "[[country house]]s" in English than as "castles". For example, the [[Palace of Versailles|Château 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.
The [[urban]] counterpart of ''château'' is ''[[palace|palais]]'', which in French is applied only to grand houses 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 is rarely used for buildings other than the grandest royal residences. The expression ''[[hôtel particulier]]'' is used for an urban "private house" of a grand sort.
==Concept==
If a château is not old, then it must be grand. A château is a "power house" as Sir [[John Summerson]] dubbed the English (and Georgian Irish) "[[stately home]]s" that are social counterparts of châteaux. It is the personal (and usually hereditary) badge of a family that represents the royal authority at some rank, locally. Thus this word is often used to refer to a residence of a member of the French royalty or the nobility, but some fine châteaux, such as [[Vaux-le-Vicomte]] were built by the essentially high [[bourgeois]], but recently [[ennobled]], [[tax farming (France)|tax-farmer]]s and ministers of [[Louis XIII of France|Louis XIII]] and his successors.
A château is supported by its lands (''terres''),
comprising a [[manorialism|demesne]] that renders the society of the château largely self-sufficient, in the manner of the historic [[villa]] system of Rome and the Early Middle Ages. (Compare [[manorialism]] and [[hacienda]].) The open Roman villas of the time of [[Pliny the Elder]], [[Maecenas]] or emperor [[Tiberius]] began to be walled in, then fortified in the [[3rd century]], and evolved into castellar "châteaux." Even in modern use a château still retains some enclosures that are the distant descendants of these outworks: its fenced-off forecourt, with gates that could be closed and perhaps with a [[gatehouse]] or keeper's lodge, and its supporting outbuildings, like stables, kitchens, breweries, bakehouses, and lodgings for menservants in the ''garçonnière.'' Aside from the entrance ''cour d'honneur,'' the château may have an inner ''cour'' ("court"). Beyond, on the private inner side, the château faces a park that is enclosed, no matter how simply or discreetly.
In Paris, the original châteaux of the [[Louvre]] (originally fortified) and [[Luxembourg Palace|Luxembourg]] (originally in the suburbs) have lost their château name and have becomes "palaces" as the growing city enclosed them.
In the United States, the term ''château'' took root selectively. In the [[Gilded Age]] resort of [[Newport, Rhode Island]], even the châteaux were always "cottages". But north of [[Wilmington, Delaware]], in upscale rural "Château Country" centred on the powerful [[Du Pont family]].
In Canada, especially in English, "château" more often refers to a hotel than a house. It applies only to [[Canada's grand railway hotels|the largest and most elaborate of the railway hotels]] built during the golden age of Canadian rail, such as the [[Château Lake Louise]] in [[Lake Louise, Alberta]], the [[Château Laurier]] in [[Ottawa, Ontario]], the [[Château Montebello]] in [[Montebello, Quebec]], and most famously the [[Château Frontenac]] in [[Quebec City]].
In other French speaking regions in Europe such as [[Wallonia]] in [[Belgium]] the word [[Château]] is also widely used and has the same significance. There was a strong French influence on the architecture of these noble dwellings in Belgium. Fine examples are the 17th century [[Castle of Modave|Château des Comtes de Marchin]] and the 18th century [[Castle of Seneffe|Château de Seneffe]].
==French Châteaux==
===Loire Valley===
The [[Loire Valley]] (Vallée de la Loire) is home to more than [[châteaux of the Loire Valley|300 châteaux]]. They were built between the 10th and 20th centuries, first by the French kings and soon followed by the nobility, which have caused the valley to be called "The Garden of France".
[[Image:Château des ducs de Bretagne - EDIT.jpg|thumb|right|380px|The courtyard of the [[Château des ducs de Bretagne]], [[Nantes]]]]
[[Image:ChâteaudeDampierreenYvelines.jpg|thumb|right|380px|Château of Dampierre-en-Yvelines: domesticated Baroque at the centre of Louis XIV's inner circle]]
[[Image:ChateauBoisclaireau1.jpg|thumb|right|380px|Château de Boisclaireau, residence of the [[Castle of Boisclaireau|Gueroust family]], Counts of Boisclaireau, in the Loire Valley]]
===Dampierre-en-Yvelines===
(''illustration, right''), built by [[Jules Hardouin-Mansart]], 1675-1683 for the [[Charles Honoré d'Albert, duc de Luynes, de Chaulnes et de Chevreuse|duc de Chevreuse]], [[Jean-Baptiste Colbert|Colbert]]'s son-in-law, 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 [[parterre]]s, now mown hay. The park with formally shaped water was laid out by [[André Le Notre]]. There are sumptuous interiors. The small scale (compared to [[Vaux-le-Vicomte]] for example) makes it easier to compare it to the approximately contemporary [[Het Loo]], for [[William III of Orange]]. These really are "Mansart roofs."
===Bordeaux===
There are many estates with true châteaux on them in [[Bordeaux]], but it is customary for any [[wine]]-producing estate, no matter how humble, to prefix its name with "Château". This is true whether the building itself is a magnificent palace or a shack. If there were any trace of doubt that the Roman villas of [[Aquitaine]] evolved into fortified self-contained châteaux, the wine-producing châteaux would dispel it.
On the other hand there are many beautiful châteaux in the Bordeaux region still depicting this Roman villa style of architecture, an example of this being Château Lagorce in Haux.
==See also==
*[[Châteaux of the Loire Valley]]
*[[List of castles]]
*[[List of castles in France]]
*[[Faux château]]
*[[Châteauesque]]
==External links==
*[http://tchaykovsky.com/zamki/zamki.htm Les châteaux de la France profonde...] {{fr}}
*[http://www.septfontaines.com Château de Septfontaines, Luxembourg] {{fr icon}}
*[http://www.roquetaillade.eu Roquetaillade Castle] {{en}}
*[http://www.chateau-de-montreuil-bellay.fr/castle/index.php Château de Montreuil-Bellay] {{en}}
*[http://www.chateaudefontainebleau.net/English/frame-eng.htm Château de Fontainebleau] {{en}}
*[http://graphikdesigns.free.fr/chateau-bellocq-bearn.html Château de Bellocq Bearn] {{fr}}
*[http://graphikdesigns.free.fr/chateau-de-morlanne.html Château of Gaston Phoebus at Morlanne in Bearn] {{fr}}
*[http://www.visitvoltaire.com/index.html Château de Cirey; residence of Voltaire] {{en}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chateau}}
[[Category:Châteaux in France|*]]
[[Category:French loanwords]]
[[Category:House types]]
[[cs:Zámek (stavba)]]
[[da:Slot]]
[[de:Schloss (Architektur)]]
[[et:Loss]]
[[es:Château]]
[[eo:Kastelo]]
[[fr:Château]]
[[ko:샤토]]
[[nl:Kasteel]]
[[no:Slott]]
[[sk:Zámok (stavba)]]
[[sv:Slott]]