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Grand Trianon
The Grand Trianon () is a French Baroque style château situated in the northwestern part of the Domain of Versailles in Versailles, France. It was built at the request of Louis XIV as a retreat for himself and his ''maîtresse-en-titre'' of the time, the Marquise de Montespan, and as a place where he and invited guests could take light meals (''collations'') away from the strict etiquette of the royal court. The Grand Trianon is set within its own park, which includes the Petit Trianon (a smaller château built in the 1760s, during the reign of Louis XV). Trianon de Porcelaine Between 1663 and 1665, Louis XIV purchased the hamlet of Trianon, on the outskirts of Versailles. In 1670, he commissioned the architect Louis Le Vau to design a porcelain pavilion (Trianon de Porcelaine) to be built there. The façade was made of white and blue Delft-style porcelain (ceramic) tiles from the French manufactures of Rouen, Lisieux, Nevers and Saint-Cloud. Construction began in 1670 an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Château
A château (, ; 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 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. Definition 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 "palaces" or fine " country houses" rather than "castles", and for these, the word "château" is appropr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Petit Trianon
The Petit Trianon (; French for 'small Trianon') is a Neoclassical architecture, Neoclassical style château located on the grounds of the Palace of Versailles in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, France. It was built between 1762 and 1768 during the reign of King Louis XV of France, Louis XV. The Petit Trianon was constructed within the gardens of a larger royal retreat known as the Grand Trianon. Design and construction The Petit Trianon was built on the site of a botanical garden developed about a decade earlier by Louis XV, within the grounds of the Grand Trianon, Louis XIV's retreat. It was designed by Ange-Jacques Gabriel by order of Louis XV for his mistress, Madame de Pompadour, and was constructed between 1762 and 1768. Madame de Pompadour died four years before its completion, and the Petit Trianon was subsequently occupied by her successor, Madame du Barry. Upon his accession to the throne in 1774, the 20-year-old Louis XVI gave the château and its surrounding p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Françoise D'Aubigné, Marquise De Maintenon
Françoise d'Aubigné (27 November 1635 – 15 April 1719), known first as Madame Scarron and subsequently as Madame de Maintenon (), was a French nobility, French noblewoman and the second wife of Louis XIV, Louis XIV of France from 1683 until his death in 1715. Although she was never considered queen of France, as the marriage was carried out in secret, Madame de Maintenon had considerable political influence as one of the King's closest advisers and the Governess of the Children of France, governess of the royal children. Born into an impoverished Huguenots, Huguenot noble family, Françoise married the poet Paul Scarron in 1652, which allowed her access to the Parisian high society. She was widowed in 1660, but later saw her fortunes improve through her friendship with Louis XIV's mistress, Françoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart, Marquise de Montespan, Madame de Montespan, who tasked her with the upbringing of the king's extramarital children. She was made royal governess whe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Languedoc
The Province of Languedoc (, , ; ) is a former province of France. Most of its territory is now contained in the modern-day region of Occitanie in Southern France. Its capital city was Toulouse. It had an area of approximately . History The Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis fell to the Visigothic Kingdom from the 5th to the 8th centuries. Occupied briefly by the Emirate of Córdoba between 719 and 759, it was conquered and incorporated into the Kingdom of the Franks by Pepin the Short in 759 following the Siege of Narbonne. The term Languedoc originated to describe a cultural region that was not necessarily politically unified. After the decline of the Carolingian Empire political rule fragmented into small territorial divisions. King John of England lost his holdings in northern Languedoc to Philip II of France. He visited the region in 1214 seeking the restoration of those lands. In the 13th century, the See of Rome challenged the area's spiritual beliefs, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saint-Cloud
Saint-Cloud () is a French commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France, from the centre of Paris. Like other communes of Hauts-de-Seine such as Marnes-la-Coquette, Neuilly-sur-Seine and Vaucresson, Saint-Cloud is one of France's wealthiest towns, with the second-highest average household income of communities with 10,000 to 50,000 households. Saint-Cloud is home to the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM), located in the Parc de Saint-Cloud's Pavillon de Breteuil. History The town is named after Clodoald, grandson of Clovis, who is supposed to have sought refuge in a hamlet on the Seine near Paris, then named Novigentum, like many other newly founded mercantile settlements outside the traditional towns. After he was canonized, the village where his tomb was located took the name of Sanctus Clodoaldus. A park contains the ruins of the Château de Saint-Cloud, built in 1572 and destroyed by fire in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War. The château wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nevers
Nevers ( , ; , later ''Nevirnum'' and ''Nebirnum'') is a city and the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Nièvre Departments of France, department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Regions of France, region in central France. It was the principal city of the former provinces of France, province of Nivernais. It is south-southeast of Paris. History Nevers first enters written history as Noviodunum, a town held by the Aedui at Ancient Rome, Roman contact. The quantities of medals and other Roman antiquities found on the site indicate the importance of the place, and in 52 BCE, Julius Caesar made Noviodunum, which he describes as in a convenient position on the banks of the Loire, a depot (''B. G.'' vii. 55). There, he had his hostages, corn and military chest, with the money in it allowed him from home for the war, his own and his army's baggage and a great number of horses which had been bought for him in Spain and Italy. After his failure before Gergovia, the Aedui at Nov ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lisieux
Lisieux () is a Communes of France, commune in the Calvados (department), Calvados Departments of France, department in the Normandy (administrative region), Normandy Regions of France, region in northwestern France. It is the capital of the Pays d'Auge area, which is characterised by valleys and hedged farmland. Name The name of the town derives from the ("Noviomagus of the Lexovii"). The town was originally known in Common Celtic, Celtic as ("New Field", "New Market"), which was Latinization of names, Latinized as . Owing to the large number of similarly named cities, however, it was necessary to specify where this one was located. The local French demonym derives from the Latin as well. History Antiquity Lisieux was the capital of the Lexovii. In his work, ''Commentaries on the Gallic War'', Caesar mentions a Gallic ''oppidum'', a term which refers to Celtic towns located on the tops of hills. The oppidum has been pinpointed to a place referred to as ''le Castellier op ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rouen
Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine, in northwestern France. It is in the prefecture of Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe, the population of the metropolitan area () is 702,945 (2018). People from Rouen are known as ''Rouennais''. Rouen was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy during the Middle Ages. It was one of the capitals of the Anglo-Normans, Anglo-Norman and Angevin kings of England, Angevin dynasties, which ruled both England and large parts of modern France from the 11th to the 15th centuries. From the 13th century onwards, the city experienced a remarkable economic boom, thanks in particular to the development of textile factories and river trade. Claimed by both the French and the English during the Hundred Years' War, it was on its soil that Joan of Arc was tried and burned alive on 30 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ceramic
A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain, and brick. The earliest ceramics made by humans were fired clay bricks used for building house walls and other structures. Other pottery objects such as pots, vessels, vases and figurines were made from clay, either by itself or mixed with other materials like silica, hardened by sintering in fire. Later, ceramics were glazed and fired to create smooth, colored surfaces, decreasing porosity through the use of glassy, amorphous ceramic coatings on top of the crystalline ceramic substrates. Ceramics now include domestic, industrial, and building products, as well as a wide range of materials developed for use in advanced ceramic engineering, such as semiconductors. The word '' ceramic'' comes from the Ancient Greek word (), meaning ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Delft
Delft () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, and The Hague, to the northwest. Together with them, it is a part of both the Rotterdam–The Hague metropolitan area and the Randstad. Delft is a popular tourist destination in the Netherlands, famous for its historical connections with the reigning House of Orange-Nassau, for its Delftware, blue pottery, for being home to the painter Johannes Vermeer, Jan Vermeer, and for hosting Delft University of Technology (TU Delft). Historically, Delft played a highly influential role in the Dutch Golden Age. In terms of science and technology, thanks to the pioneering contributions of Antonie van Leeuwenhoek and Martinus Beijerinck, Delft can be considered to be the birthplace of microbiology. History Early history The city of Delft came int ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Façade
A façade or facade (; ) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loanword from the French language, French (), which means "frontage" or "face". In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important aspect from a design standpoint, as it sets the tone for the rest of the building. From the engineering perspective, the façade is also of great importance due to its impact on Efficient energy use, energy efficiency. For historical façades, many local zoning regulations or other laws greatly restrict or even forbid their alteration. Etymology The word is a loanword from the French , which in turn comes from the Italian language, Italian , from meaning 'face', ultimately from post-classical Latin . The earliest usage recorded by the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' is 1656. Façades added to earlier buildings It was quite common in the Georgian architecture, Georgian period for existing houses in English towns to be given a fashionable new f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Porcelain
Porcelain (), also called china, is a ceramic material made by heating Industrial mineral, raw materials, generally including kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The greater strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of pottery, arise mainly from Vitrification#Ceramics, vitrification and the formation of the mineral mullite within the body at these high temperatures. End applications include tableware, ceramic art, decorative ware such as figurines, and products in technology and industry such as Insulator (electricity), electrical insulators and laboratory ware. The manufacturing process used for porcelain is similar to that used for earthenware and stoneware, the two other main types of pottery, although it can be more challenging to produce. It has usually been regarded as the most prestigious type of pottery due to its delicacy, strength, and high degree of whiteness. It is frequently both glazed and decorated. Though definitions vary, po ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
