Encyclopedia
A
mansion is a large and stately dwelling
house for the wealthy. The word itself derives from the
Latin word
mansus the perfect passive participle of
manere "to remain" or "to stay". In the Roman Empire, a mansio was an official stopping place on a
Roman road, or
via, where cities sprang up, and where the villas of provincial officials came to be placed. The
English word "manse" originally defined a property large enough for the parish priest to maintain himself, but a mansion is no longer self-sustaining in this way . 'Manor' comes from the same root— territorial holdings granted to a lord who would
remain there— hence it is easy to see how the word 'Mansion' came to have its meaning.
History
The very first 'mansions', as we understand the term, were probably the villas built for the provincial ruling class of the
Roman Empire. As one might expect, they were placed at strategic points on a Roman road, which often grew into provincial towns. Mansions were large buildings or complexes of buildings, often with official functions, placed in full public view.
Within a Roman city, on the other hand, patrician dwellings might be very extensive, but they rarely identified their grandeur to the street, beyond the public amenity of a sheltered
portico. For example, Nero's
Domus Aurea on the Palatine Hill,
Rome was organized as a series of glittering pavilions in gardens. It, however, was not a mansion. From architectural uses of that hill comes the word,
palace.
Following the fall of Rome the practice of building unfortified villas ceased, and we lost mansions for a time. The building most suitable for the troubled times in which the leaders of nations found themselves was the castle or
chateau, from Latin castellum. In effect, the leadership moved from the way station to the fortified camp.
Today, many of the oldest inhabited mansions around the world began their existence as fortified
castles in the
Middle Ages. As social conditions slowly changed and stabilised
fortifications were able to be reduced, and over the centuries gave way to comfort. Castles were abandoned in favor of stately country homes. Today the fortified homes litter the countryside or have been turned into museums to help pay for their upkeep. It became fashionable for the elite society of Europe to pursue the social circuit from country home to country home, with intervals at town homes. Thus a nice home in the country was once again a mansion, or "stopping place" and the modern mansion began to evolve.
It was in the
16th century that mansions really began to be built in a completely unfortified and gracious style, with gardens, parks and drives. This was the era of
Renaissance architecture.
Hatfield House is a superb example of a house built during the transition period in England. In
Italy classic villas such as
Villa Farnese and
Villa Giulia were typical, but individually diverse forms, of the new style of mansion.
The reasons for building and owning these magnificent edifices were parallel to the Roman uses, nor was this an unintentional effect. It was extremely important for powerful people and families to keep in social contact with each other, as they were the primary molders of society in these times before democracy was able to reemerge. The rounds of visits and entertainments were an essential part of the societal process. The novels of
Jane Austen paint an informal picture of it. State business was often discussed and determined in informal settings. Human nature being what it is, there probably was also a motive of providing the owner with an obvious
status symbol. And yet, as
Charles II of England discovered during his
restoration, the ordinary people typically expected and demanded such symbols, and would accept nothing less! Times of revolution reversed this value. During its revolution, France lost a large part of its country homes to incendiary committees, who removed them from the future heritage of the country in anger.
Until
World War II it was not unusual for a moderately sized mansion in
England such as
Cliveden to have an indoor staff of 20 and an outside staff of the same size, while, in a ducal mansion such as
Chatsworth House the numbers were far higher. In the great houses of Italy, the number of retainers employed to staff them was often even greater than in England, whole families plus extended relations would often inhabit warrens of rooms in basements and attics. It is doubtful that a 19th century Marchesa would even know the exact numbers who served her. Most European mansions also were the hub of vast estates. A true estate always contains at least one complete
village and its church. Large estates such as that of
Woburn Abbey have several villages attached.
Defining a mansion
In
Europe mansions are often given various titles, hinting at their origins -
castle,
palace,
manor,
towers, and grange to name but a few. Some such as Sir
John Vanbrugh's
Castle Howard and
Edwin Lutyens's
Castle Drogo were built centuries after the last real castle was considered necessary. The term 'palace' in England is reserved to a mansion which is the
London residence of a member of the
Royal Family or an
episcopal seat in a
cathedral city. One exception is the great
country house Blenheim Palace in
Oxfordshire. In the Netherlands a palace is always connected to a member of the royal family. In the rest of Europe however a palace can be just a medium sized town mansion owned by anybody. In London,
Mansion House is the official residence of the Lord Mayor.
There is no strict definition of how many rooms a house has to have before it can be termed a mansion, but realtors generally use the classification for houses with at least 8,000 square feet of floorspace. Until the mid
20th century the European mansion would often have a hall, two or three salons or drawing rooms, library, billiards room, ball room, dining room, breakfast room, morning room, study and numerous bedrooms. Until the middle of the last century European mansions were often short of bathrooms, often only two or three in a house of 20 plus bedrooms. In addition to the principal bedrooms would be far more for the staff usually on the uppermost or attic floors.
In
London, the "mansion blocks" of the late 19th and early 20th centuries are up-market apartment buildings with the exterior design of a mansion.
In
Japan, a mansion is doublespeak for a condominium.
- For a discussion of the household of a mansion, see great house.
Nineteenth century development
The
19th century saw particularly in the
U.S.A a new type of mansion being built, often smaller than the older European mansions, but in their own way just as beautiful,
The Breakers in
Rhode Island is a fine example, as is the nearby, but completely different, Watts Sherman House.
Fifth Avenue in
New York at this time was lined with numerous mansions, designed by the leading architects of the day, many in European
gothic styles, built by the many families who were making their fortunes, and thus achieving their social aspirations, in the mid 19th century. However, nearly all of these have now been demolished, thus depriving New York of a
boulevard to rival, in the architectural sense, any in
Paris,
London or
Rome—where the many large mansions and palazzos built or remodelled during this era still survive.
Even in Europe some 19th-century mansions were often built as replicas of older houses, the
Château de Ferrières in
France was inspired by
Mentmore Towers which in turn is a copy of
Wollaton Hall. Other mansions were built in the new and innovative styles of the new era such as the arts and crafts style: The Breakers is a pastiche of an
Italian Renaissance Palazzo;
Waddesdon Manor in
Buckinghamshire is a faithful mixture of various
French châteaux. One of the most enduring and most frequently copied styles for a mansion is the
palladian - particularly so in the
18th century. However, the
gothic style was probably the most popular choice of design in the 19th century. The most bizarre example of this was probably
Fonthill Abbey which actually set out to imitate the mansions which had truly evolved from
mediaeval gothic
abbeys following the
Dissolution of the Monasteries in the
16th century.
Mansions built during and after the 19th century seldom were supported by the large estates of their predecessors. These new mansions were often built as the week-end retreats of businessmen who commuted to their offices by the new
railways, which enabled them to leave the
city more easily. Before this era most owners of mansions were the old aristocracy.
Latin America
In Latin America, with its feudal colonial and post-colonial past, the grand rural estate, the
Hacienda or Estancia with the mansion as its stately center, is a characteristic feature.
Naturally mansions followed European architectural styles.
Whereas until the second half of the 19th century Spain and Portugal as the colonial powers were the eminent models for architecture and upperclass lifestyle, towards the end of the 19th century they were being replaced by then more dominant powers like France or England.
In comparably developed, densely populated countries like Mexico, feudel estates and their mansions were as grand and stately as in the old world, whereas where estates were founded in the sparsely populated remote aereas like the Pampa of
Argentina or
Uruguay, where iron pillars, doors, windows, furniture had to be brought from Europe by ship and afterwards oxcart, buildings were smaller, but normally still aspiring to evoke a stately impression, often featuring the Mirador
The modern mansion
Mansions built during the last and present centuries usually have specially designed rooms meant to accommodate leisure activities of a particular kind. Many will have a conservatory or
greenhouse, while others will have an indoor
swimming pool or an Arts and crafts room with huge North oriented windows. Others will have all of these features. The relative importance of these specially designed rooms changes with the times: At the beginning of the 20th century no true mansion would have been built without a large room to house a private
library, while at the beginning of the 21st century the presence of a big room designed for a
home theatre or
cinema is a must. Most recently, mansions have been built with integrated domotics.
A
McMansion is often a speculatively-built,
suburban house that incorporates numerous upscale design features on a floor plan of 2000 to 5000 square feet. They are typically built from standard plans with some cosmetic detailing and design changes available to the buyer. In contrast, a "real" mansion is normally designed by an
architect to the exact needs of the clients, is significantly larger , and contains many more features and creature comforts.
The costly time spent by an experienced architect is a better indicator of the lasting status of a mansion than the number of its rooms, its total size, or its special amenities. The homes and mansions designed by the late
Richard Neutra and Quinlan Terry are good examples of modern designs which have been nearly perfectly tailored to fit a particular customer.
A modern mansion today may not necessarily be limited to a single house standing alone. Compounds, or a grouping of larger houses have become more popular. The Kennedy Compound is an example of one family building large houses on a single plot.
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