Maison de Maitre - Manoir – Manor - Country Estate
Moulin.nl offers to search in many different types of property including the Manor type. For our users and advertisers it is not always easy to choose what type it represents. Manors are often Castles and Castles are often Manors whilst Manors can be Maisons de Maitre or Large family homes in a more contemporary setting. Thus the Manor type name is also used for a more contemporary Maison de Maître in France or Mansion as it is known in most countries if it concerns a larger realty estate. The Mansion or Manor as we know them today is always a large residential of office building located either in an urban setting or countryside setting, recognizable by its fairly rectangular structure. Their construction period found its height during the 19th century after the French revolution. A Mansion or Manor was always related to an economic function in the region from where the owner would manage its workers. Many of the very large dwellings in most countries have been converted into large comfortable and prestigious office buildings as they often became too costly to maintain.
The name "Maison de Maître" is mainly used to describe a large house of charm and stature. Until the French revolution, a Manor or Mansion would typically belong to families of nobility and many have been deprived of their land, castles or manors during the revolution to benefit the upper middle class. Mansions, Castles and Manors became the comfortable statues of wealth for a new era of economic developers in wine making, agriculture, industry and horse management. As modernisation, such as construction of sanitation and electricity, brought about very high cost for the owners of large properties, they were often forced to sell and move to smaller urban properties which then became the modern and more comfortable alternative of housing.
Mansions, Manors, Maison de Maitre and Country houses or estates were mainly used by and built for regional notables and larger business owners as well as wealthy farmers. These large houses were functional as primary living accommodation for their owners and family as well as larger office accommodation. The interior design of these large properties was efficient for managing both a hierarchy of private and office functioning.
Manoir A Manor was most often the residence of a lord. Early, mainly 14th and 15 century, built Manors (or castles) were fortified houses with visible non-intrusion elements such as huge, wall deep ditches and large platforms. Yet not meant to be used for military purpose. To make a distinction between a Castle and a Manor is not always easy. Before the French golden age (19th century) Manors were usually the center of a farming related activity.
