Hearst Castle
Julia Morgan's hilltop estate for William Randolph Hearst, with 115 rooms, gardens and two great pools.
The publisher William Randolph Hearst began building on the family ranch above San Simeon in 1919, working with the architect Julia Morgan on a scheme he called La Cuesta Encantada. Over nearly three decades Morgan raised the twin-towered main house, Casa Grande, together with three guest cottages, terraced gardens and the outdoor Neptune Pool. Work stopped in 1947 when Hearst left the hilltop for health reasons, leaving parts of the house unfinished.
Rooms were built around European fittings that Hearst bought in quantity, among them Spanish choir stalls, Italian ceilings, Roman mosaics and Greek vases. The Hearst Corporation gave the estate to the State of California in 1957 and it opened to visitors the following year as Hearst San Simeon State Historical Monument. Several themed guided tours cover the grand rooms, upstairs suites, cottages and kitchen, and afterwards visitors may walk the gardens and both pools.
Highlights
- Casa Grande's twin towers above the Santa Lucia range
- Neptune Pool with its transplanted Roman temple front
- Roman Pool lined with gold and Venetian glass tiles
- Antiquities and European fittings built into the rooms
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