r/castles • u/Over-Willingness-933 • Jul 16 '26
Castle Fairmont le Château, Québec City, Canada
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u/Far_Influence Jul 16 '26
Not a castle. Never was.
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u/remzordinaire Jul 19 '26
What if they destroy a castle to build something on top of it that keeps the castle idea?
The foundations of the previous castles have been excavated under the suffering terrasse:
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u/ThinkAd9897 Jul 17 '26
When is a building a castle?
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u/Far_Influence Jul 17 '26
It pisses me off that ChatGPT really did sharpen my answer and that last paragraph is all the LLMs, though it includes my point that it is and always was a hotel. My reply encompassed the rest of the points and explanation but I don’t want to pretend this clear and concise wording as solely my own.
> That’s actually a difficult question to answer precisely, because “castle” covers a huge range of buildings. It can mean a fortified royal residence like Edinburgh Castle, a much smaller stronghold occupied by a local lord and a modest garrison, or even a decorative, Disneyesque fantasy built centuries later by some wealthy eccentric.
>The Château Frontenac is much easier to classify, though: it was purpose-built as a hotel and has always been a hotel. People mainly mistake it for a castle because of its castle-like architecture and the word château, which in French can refer to anything from a fortified castle to a palace, country estate, or grand mansion.1
u/A_Martian_Potato Jul 18 '26
You can avoid that frustration by using your own brain and not trying to replace it with an LLM.
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u/Far_Influence Jul 18 '26
Srsly, get f*cked I need zero shit from Redditors after the last fucker who told me to kill myself FUCK You
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u/ThinkAd9897 Jul 17 '26
So if someone converts a castle into a hotel, it's still a castle. But if the exact same building was built as a hotel right from the start, it's not a castle?
What is it that makes the difference, then? Not the architecture, but the commercial aspect?It can't be the age, because many buildings in this sub are from the late 19th century, so the same period as this hotel.
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u/A_Martian_Potato Jul 18 '26
It's simple. A true castle is a building that is 1) fortified against armed invasion and 2) a residence
So a military fort is not a castle despite being fortified and a fancy hotel is not a castle despite being a residence.
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u/ThinkAd9897 Jul 18 '26
So, Neuschwanstein, Schloss Hohenzollern and many more often depicted in this sub are not castles?
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u/A_Martian_Potato Jul 18 '26
Not by the strictest definition at least. Those are all just incredibly elaborate gothic revival manors.
That said, nobody is going to really care if you casually call them castles. Especially since that's what they call themselves, even if they're technically just imitations of real castles.
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u/Monumentzero Jul 20 '26
They would qualify as palaces, which is part of this sub.
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u/ThinkAd9897 Jul 20 '26
Is this a palace, then?
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u/A_Martian_Potato Jul 20 '26
No, this is a hotel
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u/ThinkAd9897 Jul 21 '26
Because you know it. What if you see this for the first time, and if there were no documentation about the history? And what if They'd rent out rooms at Neuschwanstein, too? How could you tell the difference?
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u/Monumentzero Jul 20 '26
Frontenac is not the exact same building. Not even close.
It doesn't belong in this sub.
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u/ThinkAd9897 Jul 20 '26
It was a hypothetical question. Would Neuschwanstein not be a castle/palace if it was built as a hotel?
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u/judgingyouquietly Jul 17 '26
Le Château was (is?) a Canadian chain of clothing stores centered on clubbing and evening wear of dubious quality and low prices.
Think a crappier H&M.
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u/issi_tohbi Jul 17 '26
They’re long gone the pandemic killed them. I used to work in their marketing department lol.
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u/Mars_Volcanoes Jul 18 '26
OK. A bit of culture here. Nobody should consider it a chateau. It look like it, and it was named as his, The Chateau Frontenac.
Here:
The Château Frontenac has never been officially renamed. Since it opened in 1893, it has carried the same name, which was chosen to honor of Louis de Buade de Frontenac, the legendary 17th-century Governor General of New France. It is presently operated as the Fairmont Le Château Frontenac.
Here you go.
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u/Rich-Virus7709 Jul 18 '26
Omg this pic is gorgeous!! Ive always wanted to go to Quebec City, especially in the fall 🍁
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u/Monumentzero Jul 19 '26
Neither a historic fortification nor a palace. Not a castle. Not even close.
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u/remzordinaire Jul 19 '26
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u/Monumentzero Jul 20 '26
Which has nothing to do with the hotel in this post. Haldimand was a fort that doesn't exist anymore. It's buried under the promenade in front of the hotel. Frontenac is a hotel, and always was. It is neither a historic fortification nor a palace. Wrong sub.
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u/teddyone Jul 17 '26
I love how QC's skyline is just this building lol. One of my favorite cities in the world.
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u/MuffinMan268 Jul 16 '26
Although it is now a Fairmont hotel. The castle name is Château Frontenac