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The Fairmont Le Château Montebello or simply Château Montebello is a hotel and resort complex in Montebello, Quebec, Canada.〔(Chateau Montebello web site. )〕 The setting for the retreat is of forested wildlife sanctuary and 70 lakes on the shore of the Ottawa River, between Ottawa and Montreal.〔MacDonald, John. ( "Montebello: A log cabin with class," ) ''CARP News'' (Canadian Association of Retired Persons). May 1997.〕 ==Construction== In the late 1920s, Harold M. Saddlemire, a Swiss-American entrepreneur, acquired a site along the Ottawa River, on land that formerly formed part of the Seigneurial system of New France.〔( Fairmont Chateau Montebellow web site: ) ( hotel history. )〕 The hotel is situated on one of the last surviving land grants made by 17th-century French kings to early settlers of what was then La Nouvelle France.〔Lewis, Paul. ( "Log Cabin Luxury," ) ''New York Times.'' 23 September 1990.〕 François de Laval, the first Bishop of Quebec, purchased the property in 1674 from the French East India Company. The Quebec Seminary inherited it from Laval. In 1801, the land was sold to the family of Joseph Papineau. His son, Louis-Joseph Papineau, built a turreted stone mansion, the Manoir Papineau, in typically French style. This grand house, which was designated a National Historic Site of Canada, functions as a museum which is open in the summer. It is the only structure on the property which doesn't conform to the log cabin motif of the resort.〔 Saddlemire envisioned a private wilderness retreat for business and political leaders. He initially called this project "Lucerne-in-Quebec;" subsequently came to be known as the Seigniory Club. Despite the 1929 stockmarket crash, work on the planned wilderness retreat began as planned in early 1930.〔 The economic uncertainty did not delay the project, as it did so many others, due perhaps to the fact that the presidents of the Canadian Pacific Railway, the National Bank of Canada, the Bank of Montreal and the Royal Bank of Canada respectively, not to mention the Premier of Quebec, were all club directors. A special spur from the nearby CPR line had to be built to allow for the transport of red cedar logs and other supplies to the site. The Scandinavian log construction project was supervised by Finnish master-builder, Victor Nymark and construction manager Harold Landry Furst. Construction and woodworking teams worked in overlapping shifts around the clock using electric lighting at night.〔 In this era, the church did not approve of working on the Sabbath; but by coincidence, the local curé was dispatched on an all-expenses paid trip to Rome for two months while the work proceeded apace.〔Mounsey, Josie. ( "A Winter's Tale: 'We were transported to a Christmas past'," ) ''The Independent'' (London). November 16, 2002.〕 An army of 3500 laborers ensured that the project could reach completion in only four months.〔 The club's grand opening was held on 1 July 1930. Three days after opening, a magnificent costume ball was held, attended by the Governor General of Canada and other such luminaries.〔 The centerpiece of the new log-château was a hexagonal rotunda, containing a six-sided stone fireplace that rose more than 20 metres (66 ft) to the roof, soaring rafters featuring logs 18 metres (60 ft) long, and two mezzanines that completely encircled the rotunda. The newly constructed buildings on the site contained 10,000 logs, 500,000 hand-slit cedar roof shakes and 166 kilometres of wooden moulding. The club was acclaimed for its architecture and architectural details. The log walls are painted black on the outside, but the interiors display the natural beauty of the wood which was all shipped by rail from British Columbia.〔 When Margaret Thatcher first saw Château Montebello, she was reported to have observed that it must be the world's largest "log cabin,"〔 but she was neither the first nor the last to react in that manner.〔 The current array of 211 guest rooms, including 14 suites, are organized in the four wings which fan out from the rotunda, with additional wings for the dining room and the ballroom.〔OttawaPlus: ( Château Montebello. )〕 There are 17 rooms and a total of of meeting space available for business purposes.〔Road & Travel Magazine: ( Chateau Montebello )〕 Today the hotel's amenities encompass such features an indoor and outdoor pool, an 18-hole golf course and 26 kilometres of cross-country ski trails. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Château Montebello」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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