Frontenac of Canada

Castle Frontenac (original name: Château Frontenac) is actually a castle-style hotel. The Château Frontenac Hotel was built in 1892. New York architect Bruce Price, designer of Montréal’s Windsor and Viger Stations and inspired by French castles drafted the plans. Head of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, William Van Horne was responsible for its construction.

The distinguished hotel takes its name after Louis de Buade, Comte de Frontenac. A crucial figure in New France history, Frontenac was the leader of the colony from 1672 to 1682, and again from 1689 to 1698. He has realized problems that it has defended the colony against British and Iroquois attacks.

The Château Frontenac was built next to the Citadel where Frontenac had begun construction in the late 17th century. It contains the Saint-Louis Forts and Châteaux archeological sites. Located on a large cape (Cap Diamant). It protrudes over the St. Lawrence River and runs alongside the celebrated Plains of Abraham historic site where the battle for the conquest of Québec occurred in 1759 during the Seven Years’ War between Great Britain and France.

The center fortress-like tower is based on medieval chateaus located throughout the Loire Valley in France. The asymmetrical profile of the hotel, with steeply pitched roofs, enormous round and polygonal towers and turrets, decorative gables and dormers, and tall chimneys is reminiscent of a Châteauesque. The hotel's exterior is mostly composed of grey stone ashlar, with a steel frame running the length of the structure and Glenboig brick cladding. Mahogany paneling, marble staircases, carved stone, wrought iron, and glass roundels are among the building's interior materials. However, unlike other Châteauesque-styled structures in France, the Château Frontenac did not include Italianate characteristics, instead emphasizing Gothic aspects. The hotel also draws certain elements from the Victorian style of architecture, with rich polychromatic surfaces throughout its exterior.