Cour d'honneur (French pronunciation: [kuʁ dɔnœʁ], court of honor) is the architectural term for a three-sided courtyard, created by flanking the main central block, or corps de logis
Cour d'honneur (French pronunciation: [kuʁ dɔnœʁ], court of honor) is the architectural term for a three-sided courtyard, created by flanking the main central block, or corps de logis, with symmetrical advancing secondary wings containing minor rooms. The Palace of Versailles (illustration) and Blenheim Palace (plan) both feature such entrance courts.
Some 16th-century symmetrical Western European country houses built on U-shaped groundplans resulted in a sheltered central door in a main range that was embraced between projecting wings, but the formalized cour d'honneur is first found in the great palaces and mansions of 17th-century Europe, w