Court of honor (architecture)

For other uses, see Court of Honor (disambiguation).
Louis Le Vau opened up the interior court of the Château de Versailles to create the expansive entrance cour d'honneur, subsequently copied all over Europe.

A court of honor (French: cour d'honneur; German: Ehrenhof) is the principal and formal approach and forecourt 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] The Palace of Versailles (illustration) and Blenheim Palace (plan) both feature such entrance courts.

  1. ^ Curl, James Stevens (2006). Oxford Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (2nd ed.). Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. p. 207. ISBN 9780198606789..