Hearst Castle, a large estate in California, was once owned by William Randolph Hearst and is now a state historic park. Designed by Julia Morgan, it features two pools, gardens, guesthouses, and a main house with a library and wine cellars. Tours are available and reservations are recommended. Patty Hearst, granddaughter of William Randolph, was famously kidnapped by the SLA group and later jailed for bank robbery.
Hearst Castle is one of California’s most famous landmarks and tourist attractions. It’s an extremely large estate once owned by wealthy publisher William Randolph Hearst and given to the State of California by his family in 1957. William’s father, George, bought the land which eventually became part of the state historic park in 1865. Designed by civil engineer Julia Morgan, the first woman to graduate in architecture from the prestigious Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Hearst Castle was built on the property in the 1930s. There are several tour options available at the castle’s location near the city of San Simeon, California which is close to San Luis Obispo.
All tours include views of both pools at Hearst Castle. Il Nettuno is the name of the outdoor swimming pool of the structure, while the Roman is the structure of the indoor swimming pool of the castle. Greco-Roman columns and statues decorate Neptune in grand style, while opulent gold and Venetian glass adorn the Roman pool. As an indication of the immense size of the whole castle, including the bathing facilities, the Neptune Pool alone has 18 changing rooms.
In addition to the main house, the outdoor swimming pool and numerous flower gardens, the outside property has tennis courts, a zoo and an airfield. There are also separate buildings that have been used as guesthouses. The Casa Del Sol guest house has 18 rooms and overlooks the Pacific Ocean. The main house of Hearst Castle, called the Casa Grande, features many beautiful spaces which include a games room with two 1920s pool tables and a library with over 4,000 books. The cellars are stocked with Californian and rare European wines.
All tours last approximately an hour or two; it is recommended to make reservations and check tour days and times in advance. While the different indoor tours offered are all guided, the outdoor garden tours can be self-guided. The guidebooks mention what life was like when the Hearst family lived on the estate, such as the use of the many different buildings and the origin of their diverse tapestries and valuable works of art.
Patty Hearst, now Patricia Hearst-Shaw, the granddaughter of William Randolph, was involved in one of the biggest news stories in American history when she was kidnapped by the radical Symbionese Liberatation Army (SLA) group at the age of 19. Patty was not taken from the Hearst Castle property, but rather from the Berkeley, California, apartment she shared with her boyfriend at the time. What made the story particularly notable is that she was said to have had Stockholm Syndrome, which occurs when the victim sympathizes and bonds with her captors. Hearst was jailed for two years for robbing a bank with SLA members. The 39th and 42nd American presidents, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, helped get Patty Hearst’s prison sentence commuted.
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