On a hill overlooking San Simeon, CA is a castle. Affectionately known as "Hearst Castle". The dreamer of this edifice just called it his ranch house. William Randolph Hearst (newspaper mogul) inherited this land from his father. He had a dream of making it into a small European-like village. It was designed by an architect from San Francisco, Julia Morgan. It took 26 years to complete and over 10 million dollars (that's 10 million in 1920's era). Everything in is elaborate. There are 3 guests house with a total of 18 bedrooms, plus 2 pools, gardens, vistas, home theater room, etc, etc. For about 10 years in the early days of the castle, there was a zoo. Hearst had his own private zoo with deer from India, giraffes, kangaroos and zebra. There are some zebra still roaming the ranch. We didn't see any...maybe that's a good reason to go back.
Hearst traveled with his father and mother when he was young and grew to love arts and culture of other regions. His castle is filled with originals from all over Europe. One of the statues in the garden dates back to the Byzantine Empire. The statue in the picture above is Egyptian and is about 3000 years old.
Inside the castle, everything is very ornate.
The indoor pool is no exception to ornate decorations. The floor of the pool is tiled with mosiac tiles. They have a small amount of real gold covered by clear glass. The platform in the middle above the large pool and the small pool is the diving board.
The outdoor pool was a favorite place for most of his guests. Some of the more famous guests of the ranch: Winston Churchill, Charlie Chaplin, Cary Grant, Howard Hughes.Side note: Hearst's wife wouldn't ever live in the "ranch house". She lived her life in NYC.
1 comment:
Wow this looks like a fun place. The pool reminds me of the one in Death Vally at the resort there.
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