Hearst Castle
| Hearst San Simeon Estate | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| National Register of Historic Places | |||
| National Historic Landmark | |||
 The main house Casa Grande |
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| position | San Luis Obispo County in California (USA) | ||
| coordinates | 35° 41′ 6″ N , 121° 9′ 59″ W | ||
| surface | 8400 sqm | ||
| Built | 1919-1947 | ||
| NRHP number | 72000253 | ||
| Added to the NRHP | June 22, 1972 | ||
Hearst Castle is a castle-like property near San Simeon , California , built in the 1920s by newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst on a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean .
position
Hearst Castle is located about halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco in the crests of the Santa Lucia Mountains near San Simeon. California State Route 1 , also known as the Pacific Coast Highway , runs beneath the property .
description
- The exotic fantasy castle shows what happens when a simple idea is tackled with unlimited amounts of time, money, architectural talent and enthusiasm.
The main house , La Casa Grande (Spanish: The Great House ), with its twin towers, occupies the highest point and is surrounded by three guest bungalows:
- Casa del Mar
- Casa del Monte
- Casa del Sol
There is also the more than 30 meter long Neptune's swimming pool in the ancient Greek style , built with green and white marble, an Italian temple facade and a neoclassical colonnade . Inside is the Roman Basin with blue and gold Murano tiles.
The architecture is entirely eclectic , but the main influences came from Spanish Renaissance cathedrals .
story
In 1919, Hearst decided to build a simple bungalow for himself and his girlfriend, movie star Marion Davies . In 1919, following his successes as a newspaper publisher, Hearst began to transform the family farm near San Simeon from a simple camp into a stately home. Hearst's father, George Hearst , bought the huge estate in 1865. Working with architect Julia Morgan by 1947, Hearst created a $37 million castle with 165 rooms, numerous outbuildings, an outdoor and indoor pool, 300 acres of gardens, a small movie theater, and guest houses. The property also included the largest private zoo in the world, with a variety of exotic animals such as B. zebras, which can still be seen grazing on the property.
Morgan and Hearst based their construction on various European architectural styles (such as churches from different epochs or Neuschwanstein Castle ), which were supplemented by antiques and original building fabric from Europe.
Hearst collected across Europe to fill the 100+ rooms, removing entire suites from Spanish palaces in the process. Completed parts were constantly being torn out and replaced on this construction project until Hearst ran out of money in 1937.
The Roaring 20s
In the 1920s and 1930s, Hearst flew in Hollywood stars and celebrities and threw regular parties. There were strict rules and customs at Hearst Castle, to which all guests, without exception, had to abide; for example, each guest was expected to show up for the formal dinner, but was mostly left to his own devices during the day while Hearst went about his business. His most prominent guests have included Charlie Chaplin , Winston Churchill , Rudolph Valentino , Cary Grant , Charles Lindbergh , Joan Crawford , Calvin Coolidge and Clark Gable .
Current
In 1957, Hearst Castle was placed under the management of California State Parks by the Hearst Corporation , which offers daily guided tours of the property for $ 20-25. Today, members of the Hearst family are still free to use the property or move back in, but the property has been unoccupied since an attack in the 1970s. When explosives detonated in a guest house on the property in February 1976, no one was injured. The assassination took place during Patty Hearst 's trial for her membership in the Symbionese Liberation Army . On June 22, 1976, Hearst Castle was listed on the National Register of Historic Places . The building complex has been a National Historic Landmark since May 11, 1976 . Far from urban centers, the museum, with its remarkable art treasures and storied history, still attracts around a million visitors a year.
It is considered to be the model of Xanadu Castle in the Orson Welles film Citizen Kane .
The future of the plant and its eventual destruction after a fictional disappearance of mankind is shown in episode 5 of the 2nd season of the docu -fiction series Future Without People ("Danger of Collapse", USA 2010).
In 2014, Lady Gaga shot the video for her single GUY at Hearst Castle
literature
- Sydney LeBlanc: Modern Architecture in America. A Guide to Twentieth-Century Buildings . Stuttgart: German publishing house, 1998. ISBN 3-421-031-36-3
- Neil Parkyn: Seventy Marvels of Architecture . Munich: Frederking & Thaler Verlag, 2006. ISBN 3-89405-536-7
itemizations
- ↑ LeBlanc: Modern Architecture in America
- ↑ Old Hearst Estate Is Scene of Blast; Cottage Damaged . New York Times, February 13, 1976, p. 66
- ↑ Entry in the National Register Information System . National Park Service , retrieved May 23, 2016
- ↑ Listing of National Historic Landmarks by State: California. National Park Service , retrieved July 30, 2019.
web links
- Official website (English)
- Hearst San Simeon State Historical Monument at California Dept. of Parks and Recreation
- Friends of Hearst Castle