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A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a Manorialism in the European feudal system; within its great hall were usually held the lord's , communal meals with manorial tenants and great banquets. The term is today loosely (though erroneously) applied to various English country houses, mostly at the smaller end of the spectrum, sometimes dating from the Late Middle Ages, which currently or formerly house the landed gentry.
Manor houses were sometimes Fortified house, albeit not as fortified as castles, but this was often more for show than for defence. They existed in most European countries where feudalism was present.
The produce of a small manor might be insufficient to feed a lord and his large family for a full year, and thus he would spend only a few months at each manor and move on to another where stores had been laid up. This also gave the opportunity for the vacated manor house to be cleaned, especially important in the days of the Cesspit, and repaired. Thus such non-resident lords needed to appoint a steward or seneschal to act as their deputy in such matters and to preside at the manorial courts of his different manorial properties. The day-to-day administration was carried out by a resident official in authority at each manor, who in England was called a bailiff, or reeve.
By the beginning of the 16th century, manor houses as well as small castles began to acquire the character and amenities of the residences of country gentlemen, and many defensive elements were dispensed with, for example Sutton Place in Surrey, . A late 16th-century transformation produced many of the smaller Renaissance châteaux of France and the numerous country mansions of the Elizabethan and Jacobean styles in England. These would eventually evolve into country houses with the estate replacing the manor.
Nearly every large medieval manor house had its own deer-park adjoining, imparked (i.e. enclosed) by royal licence, which served primarily as a store of food in the form of venison. Within these licensed parks deer could not be hunted by royalty (with its huge travelling entourage which needed to be fed and entertained), nor by neighbouring land-owners nor by any other persons.
The Dissolution of the Monasteries under King Henry VIII resulted in many former monastical properties being sold to the King's favourites, who then converted them into private country houses, examples being Woburn Abbey, Forde Abbey, Nostell Priory and many other mansions with the suffix Abbey or Priory to their name.
During the second half of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603) and under her successor King James I (1603–1625) the first designed by architects not by mere masons or builders, began to make their appearance. Such houses as Burghley House, Longleat, and Hatfield House are among the best known of this period and seem today to epitomise the English country house.
During the 16th century many lords of manors moved their residences from their ancient manor houses often situated next to the parish church and near or in the village and built a new manor house within the walls of their ancient deer-parks adjoining. This gave them more privacy and space.
The usage is often today used as a modern catch-all suffix for an old house on an estate, true manor or not.
The salle haute or upper-hall, reserved for the seigneur and where he received his high-ranking guests, was often accessible by an external spiral staircase. It was commonly "open" up to the roof trusses, as in similar English homes. This larger and more finely decorated hall was usually located above the ground-floor hall. The seigneur and his family's private chambres were often located off of the upper first-floor hall, and invariably had their own fireplace (with finely decorated chimney-piece) and frequently a latrine.
In addition to having both lower and upper halls, many French manor houses also had partly fortified gateways, watchtowers, and enclosing walls that were fitted with arrow slit for added protection. Some larger 16th-century manors, such as the Château de Kerjean in Finistère, Brittany, were even outfitted with ditches and fore-works that included gun platforms for cannons. These defensive arrangements allowed maisons-fortes and rural manors to be safe from a coup de main perpetrated by an armed band, many of which roamed the countryside during the troubled times of the Hundred Years War and the French wars of religion; but these fortified manor houses could not have withstood a lengthy siege undertaken by a regular army equipped with (siege) engines or heavy artillery.
German language uses terms like Schloss or Gutshaus for places that functioned as the administrative center of a manor. Gut(shaus) implies a smaller ensemble of buildings within a more agricultural setting, usually owned by lower-ranking landed gentry whereas Schloss describes more representative and larger places. During the 18th century, some of these manor houses became local centers of culture where the local gentry, sometimes inspired by what they had experienced during their grand tour, was mimicking the lifestyle of the higher nobility, creating lavish parks, art collections or showed an interest in science and research.
Many of the earlier houses are the legacy of the feudal heerlijkheid system. The Dutch had a manorial system centred on the local lord's demesne. In Middle Dutch this was called the vroonhof or vroenhoeve, a word derived from the Proto-Germanic word fraujaz, meaning "lord". This was also called a hof and the lord's house a hofstede. Other terms were used, including landhuis (or just huis), a ridderhofstad (Utrecht), a stins or state (Friesland), or a Manorialism (Drente, Overijssel and Gelderland). Some of these buildings were fortified. A number of castles associated with the nobility are found in the country. In Dutch, a building like this was called a kasteel, a slot, a burcht or (in Groningen) a borg.
During the Dutch Golden Age in the 17th century, merchants and regenten looking for ways to spend their wealth bought country estates and built grand new homes, often just for summer use. Some purchased existing manor houses and castles from the nobility. Some country houses were built on top of the ruins of earlier castles that had been destroyed during the Dutch Revolt. The owners, aspiring to noble status, adopted the name of the earlier castle.
These country houses or stately homes (called buitenplaats or buitenhuis in Dutch) were located close to the city in picturesque areas with a clean water source. Wealthy families sent their children to the country in the summer because of the putrid canals and diseases in the city. A few still exist, especially along the river Vecht, the river Amstel, the Spaarne in Kennemerland, the river Vliet and in Wassenaar. Some are located near former lakes (now ) like the Wijkermeer, Watergraafsmeer and the Beemster. In the 19th century, with improvements in water management, new regions came into fashion, such as the Utrecht Hill Ridge (Utrechtse Heuvelrug) and the area around Arnhem.
Today there is a tendency to group these grand buildings together in the category of "castles". There are many castles and in all twelve provinces. A larger-than-average home is today called a villa or a herenhuis, but despite the grand name this is not the same as a manor house.
Poland inherited many German-style manor houses ( Gutshäuser) after parts of eastern Germany were taken over by Poland after World War II.
Quinta is a term used in the Portuguese language-speaking world, which is applied variously to manors homes or to estates as a whole.
A Palacio is a sumptuously decorated grand residence, especially a royal residence or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word itself is derived from the Latin name Palātium, for Palatine Hill, the hill which housed the Imperial residences in Rome. Palacio Real is the same as Palacio, but historically used (either now or in the past) by the Spanish royal family. Palacio arzobispal is the same as Palacio, but historically used by the ecclesiastic authorities (mainly bishops or archbishops).
Alcázar is a type of Moorish castle or fortified palace in Spain (and also Portugal) built during Muslim rule, although some founded by Christians. Mostly of the alcázars were built between the 8th and 15th centuries. Many cities in Spain have its alcázar. Palaces built in the Moorish style after the Reconquista are often referred to as alcazars as well.
Hacienda is landed estates of significant size located in the south of Spain (Andalusia). They were also very common in the former Spanish Empire. Some haciendas were , Mining or Factory. Many haciendas combined these productive activities. They were developed as profit-making, economic enterprises linked to regional or international markets. The owner of an hacienda was termed an hacendado or patrón. The work force on haciendas varied, depending on the type of hacienda and where it was located.
Casona is old manor houses in León, Asturias and Cantabria (Spain) following the so-called "casa montañesa architecture". Most of them were built in the 17th and 18th centuries. Typologically they are halfway between rustic houses and palaces
Quinta is a countryside house closer to the urban core. Initially, "quinta" (fifth) designated the 1/5 part of the production that the lessee (called "quintero") paid to the lessor (owner of the land), but lately the term was applied to the whole property. This term is also very common in the former Spanish colonies.
Alqueria in Al-Andalus made reference to small rural communities that were located near cities (). Since the 15th century it makes reference to a farmhouse, with an agricultural farm, typical of Spanish Levante and the southeastern Spain, mainly in Granada and Valencia. A pazo is a type of grand old house found in Galicia. A pazo is usually located in the countryside and the former residence of an important nobleman or other important individual. They were of crucial importance to the rural and monastic communities around them. The pazo was a traditional architectural structure associated with a community and social network. It usually consisted of a main building surrounded by gardens, a dovecote and outbuildings such as a small for religious celebrations. The word pazo is derived from the Latin palatiu(m) ("palace").
The Baserri, called "Caserio" in Spanish, is the typical manor house of the Basque Provinces and Navarre. A baserri represents the core unit of traditional Basque society, as the ancestral home of a family. Traditionally, the household is administered by the etxekoandre (lady of the house) and the etxekojaun (master of the house), each with distinctly defined rights, roles and responsibilities. When the couple reaches a certain age upon which they wish to retire, the baserri is formally handed over to a child. Unusually, the parents were by tradition free to choose any child, male or female, firstborn or later born, to assume the role of etxekoandre or etxekojaun to ensure the child most suitable to the role would inherit the ancestral home. The baserri Fuero cannot be divided or inherited by more than one person. This is still the case in the Southern Basque Country but the introduction of the Napoleonic Code in France, under which such practices are illegal, greatly upset this tradition in the North. Although the Basques in the north chose to be "creative" with the new laws, it overall resulted in the breakup and ultimate financial ruin of many baserris. In practice the tradition of not breaking up baserris meant that the remaining children had to marry into another baserri, stay on the family baserri as unmarried employees or make their own way in the world ( Iglesia o mar o casa real, "Church or sea or royal house").
A cortijo is a type of traditional rural habitat in the Southern half of Spain, including all of Andalusia and parts of Extremadura and Castile-La Mancha. Cortijos may have their origins in ancient , for the word is derived from the Latin cohorticulum, a diminutive of cohors, meaning 'courtyard'. They are often isolated structures associated with a large family farming or livestock operation in the vast and empty adjoining lands. It would usually include a large house, together with accessory buildings such as workers' quarters, sheds to house livestock, granaries, , barns and often a wall enclosing a courtyard. The master of the cortijo or "señorito" would usually live with his family in a two-story building, while the accessory structures were for the labourers and their families —also known as "cortijeros".
American agricultural estates, however, often relied on slaves rather than tenant farmers or serfs which were common in Europe at the time. The owners of American agricultural estates did not have noble titles and there was no legally recognized political structure based on an aristocratic, land-owning class. As a result, this limited the development of a feudal or manorial land-owning system to just a few regions such as Tidewater and Piedmont Virginia, the Carolina Low Country, the Mississippi Delta, and the Hudson River Valley in the early years of the republic.
Today, relics of early manorial life in the early United States are found in a few places such as the Eastern Shore of Maryland with examples such as Wye Hall and Hope House (Easton, Maryland), Virginia at Monticello and Westover Plantation, the Hudson River Valley of New York at Clermont State Historic Site or along the Mississippi such as Lansdowne (Natchez, Mississippi). Over time, these large estates were usually subdivided as they became economically unsustainable and are now a fraction of their historical extent. In the southern states, the demise of plantation slavery after the Civil War gave rise to a sharecropping agricultural economy that had similarities to European serfdom and lasted into the early 20th century. The Biltmore Estate in North Carolina (which is still owned by descendants of the original builder, a member of the Vanderbilt family) is a more modern, though unsuccessful, attempt at building a small manorial society near Asheville, North Carolina.
Most manor-style homes built since the Civil War were merely country retreats for wealthy industrialists in the late 19th and early 20th century and had little agricultural, administrative or political function. Examples of these homes include Castle Hill (Ipswich, Massachusetts), Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site and Hearst Castle. A rare example of hereditary estate ownership in the United States that includes a manor-type house is Gardiners Island, a private island that has been in the same family since the 17th century and contains a Georgian architecture house. Today, some historically and architecturally significant manor houses in the United States are museums. However, many still function as private residences, including many of the colonial-era manor houses found in Maryland and Virginia a few of which are still held within the original families.
Unlike in Europe, the United States did not create a native architectural style common to manor houses. A typical architectural style used for American manor-style homes in the mid-Atlantic region is Georgian architecture although a homegrown variant of Georgian did emerge in the late 1700s called Federal architecture. Other styles borrowed from Europe include Châteauesque with Biltmore Estate being an example, Tudor Revival architecture see Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park, and Neoclassical architecture with Monticello being a prominent example. In the Antebellum South, many were built in Greek Revival architecture style.
Virginia House is a former 16th-entury English manor house blending three romantic English Tudor designs. In 1925, it was relocated to Richmond, Virginia from main sections dating from the 1620 remodeling of a priory in Warwickshire, England and reconstructed on a hillside overlooking the James River in Windsor Farms. Virginia House is now owned and operated by the Virginia Historical Society. The almost eight acres of gardens and grounds on which Virginia House rests were designed by Charles Gillette. The house has been preserved and is largely as it was when the Weddells lived there. Virginia House is on the National Register of Historic Places listings in Richmond, Virginia.
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