Hearst Castle

Hearst Castle is the grandest expression of Gilded Age ambition in the American West — a hilltop palace that newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst built to house one of the largest private art collections in the country. Designed over nearly three decades by pioneering architect Julia Morgan, its 165 rooms, gilded pools, and imported European ceilings turned a remote California ranch into a stage for Hollywood stars and world leaders. Hearst called it "La Cuesta Encantada" — The Enchanted Hill.

The land had been in the Hearst family since 1865, when mining tycoon George Hearst bought a ranch around San Simeon on California's Central Coast; the family camped there in tents on a spot they called Camp Hill. In 1919, after inheriting the estate, publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst told architect Julia Morgan he was tired of camping in tents and wanted to build something on the hill. The project would occupy them both for the rest of Hearst's life.

Julia Morgan — the first woman to earn an architecture certificate from the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and the first licensed female architect in California — designed the estate in a Mediterranean Revival style and oversaw construction from 1919 until 1947. Building was continuous and constantly revised: rooms were added, torn out, and rebuilt to accommodate the antique ceilings, choir stalls, tapestries, and Roman sarcophagi Hearst bought by the shipload. The centerpiece, the twin-towered Casa Grande, was surrounded by guesthouses, terraces, and the famous Neptune and Roman pools.

During the 1920s and 1930s Hearst entertained a steady stream of celebrities and dignitaries at San Simeon — among them Charlie Chaplin, Cary Grant, Winston Churchill, and Calvin Coolidge — often with his companion, actress Marion Davies, as hostess. Construction was never truly finished; work slowed as Hearst's fortunes declined, and he left the hill for good in 1947 due to ill health. In 1957 the Hearst Corporation donated the estate to the State of California, and it opened to the public the following year as a state historical monument.