Palace

The palace is a - usually in a city - erbauter, castle-like and representative magnificent. The term " palace " can be found in almost all European languages ​​again (eg Spanish palacio, Italian palazzo, French palais, palace English, Polish pałac, Dutch paleis, Catalan palau, Swedish palats ) and can largely equated with the word lock be, and describes a residential and representational as a residence ( governmental or residence). The description as a "palace" is for certain architectural eras (such as the Renaissance ) or regional styles and regions of the world (such as the Islamic world ) are common.

Origin of the term

The word "palace" comes from the name of one of the seven hills of ancient Rome, the Palatine Hill. Where the name of the hill Palatine himself comes, is not entirely clear, but it could be derived from the ancient Italian deity Pales field. In the period of the Republic since the end of the 2nd century BC, the hill became the preferred residential area of ​​the city. Since Augustus resided there also some Roman emperor, since the name of the hill was used synonymously for magnificent residential and adopted in different languages.

Use of the term in the European culture

The terms Palace and the Palace often overlap, the German names and their translations are only applied slightly differently in different languages. They usually denote magnificent secular buildings. The term "palace" continues to be found in different designs and languages ​​again: The Palas was in the Middle Ages the housing of a castle, the medieval palace witnessed a representative office of the king or emperor, from the Palatine ( the Paladin ) managed and the rulers and the still roving court temporarily inhabited. These buildings are often used for meetings, for the reception and entertainment of guests. This gives the word palace the word meaning and the function of " dining room", underlining the importance of Latin palatium matches in the monasteries.

As early as the Gothic in Italy, not later than the Renaissance, called a " Palazzo " a monumental, unattached buildings of secular or ecclesiastical building owner, as opposed to the villa but is located in the city and in contrast to a residential palace, referred to herein as " Reggia " is referred to, or to the castle, the one here called " Castello ". In the cities themselves created numerous magnificent aristocratic and bourgeois authority; such as the Palazzo Pitti and Palazzo Strozzi in Florence and in Rome the later baroque Palazzo Spada redesigned. States and duchies in Italy had in each residence a government palace "Palazzo Ducale ", of which the Doge's Palace in Venice is the most famous.

In France, the term " palace ", as in Italy, often - but not always - used for locks in larger cities, such as the Palais du Luxembourg or the Palais du Louvre in Paris, while castles in the country ( or formerly. rural areas ) are more likely than Château are called. The city palace is often equated with the " mansion ", this "ordinary" by the nobility and high officials is inhabited, while the palace was inhabited usually by members of the royal family. Since the time of the French Baroque was the at princely courts preferred spoken language, the Schwarzenberg Palace are also found in German-speaking areas of locks with the name " Palais " again, eg in Vienna, Munich, Palais Holnstein or the New Palace at Potsdam.

In Russia, the term palace for the large residences prevailed as. St. Petersburg Winter Palace and the summer palaces of the tsar in Peterhof and Tsarskoye Selo

In England the word "Palace" is roughly equivalent to the German " Schloss " and not differentiated according to the site - so the Buckingham Palace in central London, Blenheim Palace is located in the countryside - but thinks mostly a Residence building from the late Renaissance to the 19th century. For castles and sprang up to palaces rather the term " Castle " is selected.

As a palazzo in Fortezza is called a palace surrounded by fortifications.

Palaces in non-European culture

Also for the residences of the pre-and non -European cultures, such as Egypt, Mesopotamia or China, the term of the palace is used, the German word " castle " has not prevailed in our linguistic usage for these buildings. The ruling classes could build elaborate homes, which should express the social status and the power of the people in the most ancient civilizations. Examples of such different structures such as the Palace of Winds in India, the Imperial Palace, Tokyo, Japan, or the ruins of the Mayan palaces can be mentioned.

Modern use of the term

Since the French Revolution also representative public buildings were called palaces, the judicial palaces, in post-revolutionary Russia as the " palaces of culture" and " palaces of Pioneers ", in Berlin, the Pioneer Palace and the Palace of the Republic. The building of the Great Exhibition of 1851, the Crystal Palace in London a major influence iron and glass architecture of the second half of the 19th century. Not only in Las Vegas hotels and entertainment complexes are called very often " Palace ". The monumental palace in the world is the Romanian Parliament Palace, the second largest building in the world with a volume of about two and a half million cubic meters and 7,000 rooms and its construction cost over $ 2 billion.