Acourt of honor (French:cour d'honneur[kuʁdɔnœʁ]ⓘ;German:Ehrenhof[ˈeːʁənhoːf]) is the principal and formal approach andforecourt 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.[1] ThePalace of Versailles (illustration) andBlenheim Palace (plan) both feature such entrance courts.
Technically, the termcour 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.[citation needed]
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 formalizedcour d'honneur is first found in the greatpalaces andmansions 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 opposedpalazzi in a perspective street atPalladio'sTeatro Olimpico (Vicenza, 1584). Like the theatre set, the built environment is defined and enclosed from the more public space by ornatewrought irongilded railings. A later development replaced the railings with an open architectural columnar screen, as atPalais Royal (Paris),Schönbrunn Palace (Vienna),Alexander Palace (Saint Petersburg), orHenry Holland'sIonic screen formerly atCarlton House, London (illustrated below).[citation needed]
Examples of acour d'honneur can be found in many of the most notableBaroque and classicizing buildings of Europe including thePalazzo Pitti, one of the first 16th century residences to open acour d'honneur in the Pitti's case by embracing three sides of an existing public space. Other 16th century urbanpalazzi remained resolutely enclosed, likePalazzo Farnese, Rome. In Rome, the wings ofCarlo Maderno'sPalazzo Barberini design (1627), were the first that reached forward from a central block to create acour d'honneur floorplan.[2]
On a condensed, urban scale the formula is expressed in Parisian private houses,hôtels particuliers builtentre cour et jardin (pronounced[ɑ̃tʁ(ə)kuʁeʒaʁdɛ̃]), between court and garden, as can be seen at theHôtel 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 thecour d'honneur secreted behind. In a cramped site, one of the flanking walls of thecour 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.[3] On a grander scale, thePalais Royal was laid out in just this manner, among the first Parishôtels particuliers to have acour d'honneur, which once was separated from the public street by a wrought iron grille, later by an open architectural screen, with its grand openjardin behind, now a public space. Nearby, theTuileries Palace is gone: but thecour d'honneur with itsArc du Carrousel remains, as do theTuileries Gardens behind the former palace's site.
In densely built cities disposed on a rigorously democratic grid plan such asNew York, private houses with acour d'honneur were rare, even in theGilded Age; theVillard Houses on Madison Avenue and the formerWilliam K. Vanderbilt House on the Plaza were the rare exceptions. In London,Burlington House retains itscour d'honneur, whereasBuckingham Palace's is no longer extant, as it was remodeled to be enclosed on all four sides, thus becoming (and now known as) aquadrangle.[citation needed]
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