Château

A château (French for castle; plural châteaux) is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor or a country house of gentry, usually French, with or without fortifications. The urban counterpart of "château" is palais (palace).

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 homes" that are social counterparts of châteaux. It is the personal (and hopefully 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-farmers and ministers of Louis XIII and his successors.

Related Topics:
John Summerson - Stately home - Vaux-le-Vicomte - Bourgeois - Ennobled - Tax-farmer - Louis XIII

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A château is supported by its lands (terres), comprising a 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, brewery, bakehouse, 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. (If you doubt whether it is a château, ask to see the chapel.)

Related Topics:
Demesne - Villa - Hacienda - Pliny the Elder - Maecenas - Tiberius - 3rd century - Gatehouse

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In Paris, the original châteaux of the Louvre (originally fortified) and Luxembourg (originally in the suburbs) have lost their château name and have becomes "palaces" as the growing city enclosed them.

Related Topics:
Louvre - Luxembourg

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In England, the word "château" never took root: even the utterly châteauesque Rothschild Waddesdon Manor is not a "château." Care should be taken when translating the word château into English: in most cases palace or country house is more appropriate than castle.

Related Topics:
Waddesdon Manor - Country house

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In the U.S., "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 DuPont family, some of the châteaux are really just McMansions.

Related Topics:
Gilded Age - Newport, Rhode Island - Wilmington, Delaware - DuPont - McMansion

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