View source for Château

{{short description|French term for a manor house}}
{{other uses}}
{{distinguish|Chalet}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2021}}
[[File:Vue aérienne du domaine de Versailles par ToucanWings - Creative Commons By Sa 3.0 - 073.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Palace of Versailles|Château de Versailles]]]]

A '''château''' ({{IPA|fr|ʃɑto}}, {{IPA|fr|ʃato|}}; plural: '''châteaux''') is a [[manor house]], or [[palace]], or residence of the [[lord of the manor]], or a fine country house of [[nobility]] or [[gentry]], with or without [[fortification]]s, 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 wine regions|Bordeaux region]] of [[France]].<ref name="Dictionary.com">{{cite web | url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/chateau | title=Dictionary.com | access-date=13 April 2014 | archive-date=4 March 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304140338/http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/chateau | url-status=live }}</ref>

==Definition==
[[File:Chateau-de-Roquetaillade Gironde 2099.jpg|thumb|[[Château de Roquetaillade|Château fort de Roquetaillade]]]]
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]]s" or fine "[[English country house|country houses]]" 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 [[Palace of Versailles|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 de Roquetaillade|Château fort de Roquetaillade]].

The urban counterpart of a château is a ''[[palace|palais]]'' 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.<ref name="Applefield2010">{{cite book |last=Applefield |first=David |title=The Unofficial Guide to Paris |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2ylPVM25SukC&pg=PA112 |date=6 April 2010 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-0-470-63725-8 |page=112 |access-date=6 November 2015 |archive-date=29 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231129125943/https://books.google.com/books?id=2ylPVM25SukC&pg=PA112 |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Concept==
A château is a "power house", as Sir [[John Summerson]] dubbed the British and Irish "[[stately homes]]" 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]]—people but recently [[ennobled]]: [[tax farming (France)|tax-farmers]] and ministers of [[Louis XIII of France|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<ref name="Giedion1982">{{cite book |last=Giedion |first=Sigfried |title=Space, Time and Architecture: The Growth of a New Tradition |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZHZnmKxkGMwC&pg=PA134 |year=1982 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-83040-0 |page=134 |access-date=6 November 2015 |archive-date=29 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231129125920/https://books.google.com/books?id=ZHZnmKxkGMwC&pg=PA134#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> to run-down châteaux vacated by poor nobility and officials in the countryside,<ref name="Anderson2007">{{cite book |last=Anderson |first=James Maxwell |title=Daily Life During the French Revolution |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XAjhcHjfUisC&pg=PA2 |date=1 January 2007 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-313-33683-6 |page=2 |access-date=6 November 2015 |archive-date=29 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231129125920/https://books.google.com/books?id=XAjhcHjfUisC&pg=PA2 |url-status=live }}</ref> isolated and vulnerable.<ref name="Richardson2008">{{cite book |last=Richardson |first=Glenn |title=The Contending Kingdoms: France and England, 1420-1700 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kFSqKelemSMC&pg=PA64 |date=1 January 2008 |publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. |isbn=978-0-7546-5789-7 |page=64 |access-date=6 November 2015 |archive-date=29 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231129125920/https://books.google.com/books?id=kFSqKelemSMC&pg=PA64#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Château de Versailles (19387602929).jpg|thumb|left|''[[Cour d'honneur]]'' by [[Louis Le Vau]] at [[Palace of Versailles|Château de Versailles]], subsequently copied all over Europe]]
A château was historically supported by its ''terres'' (lands), composing a [[demesne]] 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]]). 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".<ref name="JordiSommer2007">{{cite book |last1=Jordi |first1=Nathalie |last2=Sommer |first2=Lauren |last3=Sussman |first3=Anna |title=MTV France |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g_qzLLQvdcgC&pg=PA146 |date=5 June 2007 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-0-7645-8770-2 |page=146 |access-date=6 November 2015 |archive-date=29 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231129130026/https://books.google.com/books?id=g_qzLLQvdcgC&pg=PA146#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> In modern usage, a château retains some enclosures that are distant descendants of these fortifying [[outwork]]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 [[Castle of Modave|Château des Comtes de Marchin]] and the eighteenth-century [[Castle of Seneffe|Château de Seneffe]].

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 [[Canada's grand railway hotels|most elaborate railway hotels]], built during the Canadian railroad golden age, such as the [[Château Lake Louise]] in [[Lake Louise, Alberta]], the [[Château Laurier]] in Ottawa, the [[Château Montebello]] in [[Montebello, Quebec]], and the [[Château Frontenac]] in [[Quebec City]].<ref name="HempsteadCuthbert2013">{{cite book |last1=Hempstead |first1=Andrew |last2=Cuthbert |first2=Pamela |last3=Aykroyd |first3=Lucas |title=Frommer's Far & Wide: A Weekly Guide to Canada's Best Travel Experiences |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GA9Ong8K2bkC&pg=PT149 |date=12 November 2013 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-118-10169-8 |page=149 |access-date=6 November 2015 |archive-date=29 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231129125921/https://books.google.com/books?id=GA9Ong8K2bkC&pg=PT149 |url-status=live }}</ref>

==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 [[Bordeaux wine|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 wine|Burgundy]]. 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.<ref>{{cite book|author= Rod Phillips|title= ''Wine: A social and cultural history of the drink that changed our lives''|publisher= Infinite Ideas Limited|year= 2018|isbn= 978-1-910902-48-6}}, pages 148-152, [https://books.google.com/books?id=gwhQDwAAQBAJ&dq=word+chateau+denomination+bordeaux+wine+english&pg=PA149 excerpts] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231228181547/https://books.google.com/books?id=gwhQDwAAQBAJ&dq=word+chateau+denomination+bordeaux+wine+english&pg=PA149#v=onepage&q=word%20chateau%20denomination%20bordeaux%20wine%20english&f=false |date=28 December 2023 }}</ref>

<gallery mode="packed">
File:Chateau Margaux 01 by-dpc.jpg|[[Château Margaux]]
File:Haut Brion exterior.jpg|[[Château Haut-Brion]]
File:Château d'Yquem.jpg|[[Château d'Yquem]]
File:Château Cheval-Blanc.jpg|[[Château Cheval-Blanc]]
</gallery>

The winery denomination ''Château'' is now protected by French law, and confirmed in 1981 by European Union law,<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=OJ:L:1981:106:TOC |title=Commission Regulation (EEC) No 997/81 of 26 March 1981 laying down detailed rules for the description and presentation of wines and grape musts, Article 5 |access-date=24 May 2020 |archive-date=28 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231228181438/https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=OJ:L:1981:106:TOC |url-status=live }}</ref> 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===
{{Main|Châteaux of the Loire Valley}}
[[File:Vue du château du Rivau depuis les jardins (allée des fées).jpg|thumb|left|[[Château du Rivau]]]]
The [[Loire Valley]] (Vallée de la Loire) is home to more than [[châteaux of the Loire Valley|300 châteaux]].<ref name="Whittaker2008">{{cite book |last=Whittaker |first=Andrew |title=France: Be Fluent in French Life and Culture |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rPXlfvqY55UC&pg=PT25 |year=2008 |publisher=Thorogood Publishing |isbn=978-1-85418-493-1 |page=25 |access-date=6 November 2015 |archive-date=29 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231129130015/https://books.google.com/books?id=rPXlfvqY55UC&pg=PT25#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> 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]] or the medieval [[Château du Rivau]] close to [[Chinon]] which were built of the local [[tuffeau]] stone.<ref>{{cite book|title=Ouvert au public|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KYgMAQAAMAAJ|year=1983|publisher=Editions de la Caisse nationale des monuments historiques et des sites|language=fr|page=111|access-date=6 November 2015|archive-date=29 November 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231129125944/https://books.google.com/books?id=KYgMAQAAMAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>
{{clear}}

==French châteaux—selected examples==
===Château de Chenonceau===
[[File:Chenonceau02.jpg|thumb|[[Château de Chenonceau]]]]
The [[Château de Chenonceau]] is a French château spanning the river Cher, near the small village of [[Chenonceaux]] in the [[Indre-et-Loire]] [[Departments of France|department]] 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===
[[File:Dampierre en Yvelines Chateau 01.jpg|thumb|[[Château de Dampierre]]]]
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, 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 [[parterre]]s, now mown hay. The park with formally shaped water was laid out by [[André Le Notre]].<ref name="Quest-Ritson2007">{{cite book |last=Quest-Ritson |first=Charles |title=Gardens of Europe: A Traveller's Guide |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yCtLAQAAIAAJ |year=2007 |publisher=Antique Collectors Club |isbn=978-1-870673-55-6 |page=114 |access-date=6 November 2015 |archive-date=24 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231224214807/https://books.google.com/books?id=yCtLAQAAIAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Château de Montsoreau ===
The [[Château de Montsoreau]] is the only [[châteaux of the Loire Valley|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.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Congrès Archéologique de France|last=Litoux|first=Emmanuel|publisher=Société Française d'Archéologie|year=2003|pages=255}}</ref> Montsoreau was built in 1453 by Jean II de Chambes (first counsellor of [[Charles VII of France]] and ambassador of France to [[Venice]] and to [[Turkey]]) by order of the king soon after the end of the Hundred years war. The French dramatist [[Alexandre Dumas]] made the château de Montsoreau world famous with his trilogy on the [[French Wars of Religion]] of which ''[[La Dame de Monsoreau|the lady of Monsoreau]]'' is the second volume.<ref name="dumaspere.com">{{cite web|language=fr|title=La Dame de Monsoreau|url=http://www.dumaspere.com/pages/dictionnaire/dame_monsoreau.html|publisher=dumaspere.com|year=1998|access-date=18 March 2019|archive-date=11 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170811135147/http://www.dumaspere.com/pages/dictionnaire/dame_monsoreau.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
[[File:0 Maincy - Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte (2).JPG|thumb|Château de [[Vaux-le-Vicomte]]]]

===Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte===
The Château de [[Vaux-le-Vicomte]] is a baroque French château located in [[Maincy]], near [[Melun]], 55&nbsp;km southeast of Paris in the [[Seine-et-Marne]] département of France. It was built by [[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.<ref name="Hanser2006">{{cite book |last=Hanser |first=David A. |title=Architecture of France |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zojzUU976h0C&pg=PA271 |year=2006 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-313-31902-0 |page=271 |access-date=6 November 2015 |archive-date=29 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231129130422/https://books.google.com/books?id=zojzUU976h0C&pg=PA271 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Château de Versailles===
The [[Palace of Versailles]], or in French ''Château de Versailles'', is a royal château in [[Versailles (city)|Versailles]], in the [[Île-de-France (region)|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 of France|Louis XIV]] moved from Paris, until the [[House of Bourbon|royal family]] 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]]''.

==Gallery==

<gallery mode="packed" heights="150px">
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]]
File:Castle Brissac 2007 02.jpg|[[Château de Brissac]]
File:AzeyParkseite.jpg|[[Château d'Azay-le-Rideau]]
File:Ancy-le-Franc - Cour interieure 1.jpg|[[Château d'Ancy-le-Franc]]
File:Oiron château.JPG|[[Château d'Oiron]]
File:Chateau de Hautefort 05.jpg|[[Château de Hautefort]]
File:Château du Champ-de-Bataille (Eure) - Façade sur les jardins (49748791011).jpg|[[Château du Champ de Bataille|Château du Champ-de-Bataille]]
File:Épinay-Champlâtreux (95), château de Champlâtreux, façade principale ouest.jpg|{{Interlanguage link|Château de Champlâtreux|fr|Château de Champlâtreux}}
File:Château de Vigny de face.jpg|[[Château de Vigny]]
File:Saint-Goazec (29) Château de Trévarez Façade sud 05.JPG|[[Château de Trévarez]]
File:Chateau de Ferrieres.jpg|[[Château de Ferrières]]
</gallery>

==See also==
* [[List of châteaux in France]]
* [[List of châteaux in Languedoc-Roussillon]]
* [[List of castles in France]]
* [[Châteauesque]]
* [[Château de Challain-la-Potherie]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Wiktionary|château}}
{{Commons|Châteaux en France}}
*{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Château |volume=5 |short=x}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chateau}}
[[Category:Châteaux| ]]
[[Category:Châteaux in France|*]]
[[Category:House types]]