Château Frontenac

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East side of Château Frontenac

Château Frontenac at sunset

The Château Frontenac, a grand hotel, is one of the main attractions of Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.

Designed by architect Bruce Price, the Château Frontenac was one of the first of a long series of "château" style hotels built for the Canadian Pacific Railway company at the end of the 19th and the start of the 20th century. It opened in 1893. The railway company sought to encourage luxury tourism and bring moneyed travelers to its trains.

The Château Frontenac was named in honour of Louis de Buade, Count of Frontenac, who was governor of the colony of New France from 1672 to 1682 and 1689 to 1698. The Château was built not too far from the historical Citadelle, whose construction Frontenac had begun at the end of the 17th century. The Quebec Conference of 1943, in which Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt discussed strategy for World War II, was held at the Citadelle while much of the staff stayed nearby in the Château Frontenac. (William Lyon Mackenzie King was invited to some meetings as a courtesy to Canada.)

The hotel is perched on a tall cape overlooking the Saint Lawrence River, thus giving a spectacular view for hundreds of kilometers. The hotel is built near the Plains of Abraham, where the battle for the Conquest of Quebec took place in 1759 during the Seven Years' War (also called the French and Indian War).

The hotel is managed and operated by Fairmont Hotels and Resorts of Toronto. The hotel was sold by Fairmont on October 31, 2000 to the Legacy Hotels REIT for CAD $185 million. However, Fairmont has a long-term management agreement with Legacy Hotels, and as of August 2005, held an 11.14% ownership in the REIT.