Hearst Castle Dec 10

During that golden age of burgeoning Hollywood elite, newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst sought to build himself a place of luxury entertainment and wonder atop a remote hill overlooking the sea where he frequently camped in his youth. He built to impress.

He named the place "La Cuesta Encantada," The Enchanted Hill. The place says quite a lot about the personality of the man himself and is a unique window into upper crust America in the 1920s-30s. Work on the castle began in 1919 and continued for almost 30 years, Hearst being somewhat of a perfectionist with the will and means to tear down and rebuild major structures at a whim. That said, it is an illogical collection of buildings, often poorly planned or downright awkward. The indoor pool, for example, is only accessible by walking outside across the grounds and odd room dimensions were often dictated by imported hand-carved ceilings. Apparently the whole compound was only ever half finished after 28 years of work. To Hearst it was more about the process of creating and less about a finished result. In its heyday it was considered a high honor to be a guest of the Castle- movie stars and politicians such as Charlie Chaplin, Bob Hope, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill were all guests.





Hearst Castle is now managed under the California State Park system and there are a plethora of different tours offered daily. We went for the last basic tour of the day, which allowed us to catch the sunset from the veranda and see the grounds in both day and night.







The whole place is a chaotic melding of cultures, art and animals bought and borrowed. The architecture is primarily Spanish Revival and something called Historicist Romantic, but there are obvious Moorish, Gothic and Roman influences. Copious quantities of Italy's finest sculptured marble decorate the grounds, nude Roman sculptures creating an odd contrast to the church-like turrets of the main building. The castle also has Egyptian statues, Byzantine tapestries, ceilings from monasteries, fireplaces from Gothic castles and art from around the world. The Neptune Pool has a whole facade from an ancient Roman temple which was specially imported. There seems to be few things more American than to import culture from everywhere else in the world.







Hearst even maintained the largest private zoo in the world with zebra, bison, kangaroos, yaks, giraffes, bears, tigers, chimpanzees, and an elephant. While most of these animals are long gone, some were never caught, and as we drove along the highway we happened to see a herd of wild zebras descended from Hearst's zoo.

It's a strange, but enthralling place.