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33-643: The drawbridge was deemed unsafe and closed to traffic in March 2005 by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT). In March 2007, VDOT announced that the bridge would be demolished and removed, with no plans for replacement, and demolition began in June. In 2008, several boats struck debris from the old bridge. About 3,300 motorists a day used the bridge that connected Chuckatuck and Driver . Now, they face detours of as much as 19 miles. The cost of

66-460: 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-farmers and ministers of Louis XIII and his royal successors. The quality of

99-425: A ditch or moat , crossed by a wooden bridge. In early castles, the bridge might be designed to be destroyed or removed in the event of an attack, but drawbridges became very common. A typical arrangement would have the drawbridge immediately outside a gatehouse , consisting of a wooden deck with one edge hinged or pivoting at the gatehouse threshold, so that in the raised position the bridge would be flush against

132-535: A new bridge for the King's Highway crossing was estimated at $ 48 million in 2006, far more than could be recovered through collection of tolls at that location. In October 2021, the Suffolk City Council unanimously made a resolution requesting that the Virginia Department of Transportation build a new King's Highway Bridge. The city had studied a number of options, including building the new bridge at

165-555: 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 fortifications , 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 region of France . The word château

198-543: 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 " palaces " or fine " country houses " rather than "castles", and for these,

231-524: Is a royal château in Versailles , in the 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 moved from Paris, until the royal family was forced to return to

264-650: Is a type of moveable bridge typically at the entrance to a castle or tower surrounded by a moat . In some forms of English, including American English , the word drawbridge commonly refers to all types of moveable bridges, such as bascule bridges , vertical-lift bridges and swing bridges , but this article concerns the narrower historical definition where the bridge is used in a defensive structure. As used in castles or defensive structures, drawbridges provide access across defensive structures when lowered, but can quickly be raised from within to deny entry to an enemy force. Medieval castles were usually defended by

297-475: Is called a turning bridge , and may or may not have the raising chains characteristic of a drawbridge. The inner end carried counterweights enabling it to sink into a pit in the gate-passage, and when horizontal the bridge would often be supported by stout pegs inserted through the side walls. This was a clumsy arrangement, and many turning bridges were replaced with more advanced drawbridges. Drawbridges were also used on forts with Palmerston Forts using them in

330-453: Is needed in French, the term château fort is used to describe a fortified castle, such as the Château fort de Roquetaillade . The urban counterpart of a château is a 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

363-401: Is normally found. The bridge may extend into the gate-passage beyond the pivot point, either over a pit into which the internal portion can swing (providing a further obstacle to attack), or in the form of counterweighted beams that drop into slots in the floor. The raising chains could themselves be attached to counterweights. In some cases, a portcullis provides the weight, as at Alnwick . By

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396-399: 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 parterres , now mown hay. The park with formally shaped water

429-489: 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 most elaborate railway hotels , built during

462-519: 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

495-432: The 14th century, a bascule arrangement was provided by lifting arms (called "gaffs") above and parallel to the bridge deck whose ends were linked by chains to the lifting part of the bridge. In the raised position, the gaffs would fit into slots in the gatehouse wall ("rainures") which can often still be seen in places like Herstmonceux Castle . Inside the castle, the gaffs were extended to bear counterweights, or might form

528-1027: 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 most famously, the Château Frontenac in Quebec City . There are many estates with true châteaux on them in the Bordeaux wine regions , but it is customary for any wine-producing estate since the 19th century, no matter how humble, to prefix its name with "Château". This term became

561-685: 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

594-468: 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 Château des Comtes de Marchin and the eighteenth-century Château de Seneffe . In the United States, the word château took root selectively – in

627-592: The default way of designating an estate in Bordeaux , in the same way that Domaine did in 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

660-514: The form of Guthrie rolling bridges . Drawbridges have appeared in films as part of castle sets. When the drawbridge needs to be functional this may present engineering challenges since the set may not be able to support the weight of the bridge in the conventional manner. One solution is to build the drawbridge from steel and concrete before hiding the structural materials behind wood and plaster. Ch%C3%A2teau A château ( French pronunciation: [ʃɑto] ; plural: châteaux )

693-496: The gate, forming an additional barrier to entry. It would be backed by one or more portcullises and gates. Access to the bridge could be resisted with missiles from machicolations above or arrow slits in flanking towers . The bridge would be raised or lowered using ropes or chains attached to a windlass in a chamber in the gatehouse above the gate-passage. Only a very light bridge could be raised in this way without any form of counterweight, so some form of bascule arrangement

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726-651: 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 the lady of Monsoreau is the second volume. The Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte is a baroque French château located in Maincy , near Melun , 55 km southeast of Paris in the Seine-et-Marne département of France. It

759-559: The medieval Château du Rivau close to Chinon which were built of the local tuffeau stone. The Château de Chenonceau is a French château spanning the river Cher, near the small village of Chenonceaux in the Indre-et-Loire 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

792-506: The residences could vary considerably, from grand châteaux owned by royalty and the wealthy elite near larger towns to run-down châteaux vacated by poor nobility and officials in the countryside, isolated and vulnerable. 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

825-485: The same location or at Five Mile Road. Ultimately, they decided to support the construction of the new bridge at Five Mile Road, less than a mile south of the previous location. 36°50′N 76°33′W  /  36.84°N 76.55°W  / 36.84; -76.55 This article about a bridge in Virginia is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Drawbridge A drawbridge or draw-bridge

858-459: The side-timbers of a stout gate which would be against the roof of the gate-passage when the drawbridge was down, but would close against the gate-arch as the bridge was raised. In France, working drawbridges survive at a number of châteaux , including the Château du Plessis-Bourré . In England, two working drawbridges remain in regular use at Helmingham Hall , which dates from the early sixteenth century. A bridge pivoted on central trunnions

891-510: 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". In modern usage, a château retains some enclosures that are distant descendants of these fortifying outworks : a fenced, gated, closeable forecourt, perhaps a gatehouse or a keeper's lodge, and supporting outbuildings (stables, kitchens, breweries, bakeries, manservant quarters in

924-533: 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. 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

957-463: The word "château" is appropriate in English. Sometimes the word "palace" is more appropriate. To give an outstanding example, the 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

990-480: 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. The Palace of Versailles , or in French Château de Versailles ,

1023-475: 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 . Built by Jules Hardouin-Mansart , 1675–1683 for the duc de Chevreuse , Colbert 's son-in-law,

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1056-412: Was emulated in other French regions and outside France. The winery denomination Château is now protected by French law, and confirmed in 1981 by European Union law, as "traditional appellation". The term Château may be used only if two conditions are fulfilled: The Loire Valley (Vallée de la Loire) is home to more than 300 châteaux . They were built between the 10th and 20th centuries, firstly by

1089-452: Was laid out by André Le Notre . The Château de Montsoreau is the only 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. 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

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