Storming the Castle (03-11-14)

One of my favorite movies is Princess Bride, and one of my favorite lines from that movie is the one said by Billy Crystal when his friends leave to go attack the castle where a princess is being held captive.  Billy’s character (a very old man) waves goodbye and calls out “Have fun storming the castle” as if they are going on a field trip.  Anyway, that line kept running through my head as we toured Hearst Castle.

Hearst Castle, actually named La Cuesta Encantada-the Enchanted Hill, was one of the many homes of William Randolph Hearst.  

The land it sits on was owned by his parents, and “Willie” spent a lot of time in his childhood camping on this piece of land with his family. After his parents died and he inherited it, he decided to build “ a little something” so he wouldn’t have to sleep in a tent.  By this time he was in his 50s and not interested in sleeping on the ground anymore.

He hired architect Julia Morgan to oversee the building of his home. Julia was the first woman architect to be licensed in the state of California.  She worked on the house with Hearst for over 20 years- in fact, until his death in 1951.  The castle was never finished, partly because Hearst kept changing the design.  Finished or not, he started entertaining here as soon as there were enough finished rooms to do so.

We’ve toured several homes of the “rich and famous” and this certainly ranks right up there.  What was impressive about this house was that many of the furnishings were already ancient antiques when they were put in the house.  Many of the tapestries and artwork are centuries old.

One particular painting has an interesting past. If you’ve seen the movie The Monuments Men, you’ll know that during World War II, the Nazis stole artwork from Jewish people on a regular basis.  This painting, and 2 others, were bought by Hearst at auction, which was the usual way for him to acquire furnishings and artwork.  It turns out that these three paintings had been owned by the Oppenheimer family in Germany- well known Jewish art gallery owners. The family was forced by Nazis to sell all the artwork they owned.

Just a few years ago, enough proof was presented to convince California State Parks (owner of Hearst Castle) that the paintings do in fact belong to the Oppenheimer family. They returned two of the paintings to the family, but were allowed to keep this one, so that the story behind it would be heard by millions.

In between formal tours, we strolled around the extensive gardens.













The grounds are strewn with marble statues, some of which date back to the year 3500 B.C. This is actually stark white- so white that I had to darken the picture just so you could see the details.
Other statues were custom made for Hearst.  He liked mixing the old with the new.

Born to wealthy parents, Willie took his first “Grand Tour” of Europe when he was 10.  The trip, taken with his mother, lasted a year and a half.  Early in life he discovered a love of ancient cultures, and he incorporated that into the decorating of his home.  In his library, the “newest” piece of pottery is 2200 years old.

In addition to entertaining on a personal level, he opened the house to public tours as soon as he was able.  He understood that many people would never have the opportunity to travel to foreign countries and he wanted to be able to show them what other cultures looked like.

No mansion is complete without a pool, and Hearst Castle has two of them.  The outdoor pool-the Neptune pool- showcases a 1000 year old Roman Temple.

Right now the pool is being drained.  This area is in a drought, and the water is needed for the livestock, and since the pool leaks, it was decided to drain it temporarily until the leak can be fixed.  Most of the water was still in it when we saw it, so I was very happy.


The indoor pool is just as spectacular:




The floor and walls of this room are decorated with inlayed gold leaf, which cost millions of dollars, just for the gold.


Its very hard to imagine having the kind of money that it takes to build a home like this one, and for me, its hard to imagine actually wanting to live in a house like this. Of course, this house is about 68,000 square feet and mine is about……..300 square feet.