La Cuesta Encantada: Hearst's castle

1. Construction site : 1919 - 1951
2. Location : San Simeon, California, USA

La Cuesta Encantada, the luxurious " hill favorite " by William Randolph Hearst, literally means the world corner. While the early powers of the century enjoyed living and resettling in the eastern United States, Hearst enjoyed living in the West. From the top of the mountain to 490 meters in Santa Lucia overlooking the rugged coast, it looks majestic with lots of deep blue and rocky bays below, he is truly the master of everything he reviews. close. Only one trail - a little bit of cow wheel - led to the location when he started the project in 1919, and no coastal road in the north led to Monterey or San Francisco. Trains arrive in San Luis Obispo up to 64 km away, connecting this area to Los Angeles and the rest of the country.

Overview of Hearst's castle (Photo: madisonavenuejournal)

But in this remote place, he built an extraordinary house to meet his friends and celebrities, including stars like comedian Charlie Chaplin and writer George Bernard Shaw, both as the center. from the beginning, he ruled his own business empire. Hearst, the first multi-media king of the 20th century, is also the master of many newspapers, magazines and film studios; During the day, I strictly controlled my financial profit by phone and at night, my employer treated lavish parties, dancing and watching entertainment movies.

Architect Julia Morgan - the first woman to graduate from the École de Beaux-Arts in Paris, commanded a small artisan army. (Photos: discover)

Hearst initially thought of a rural retreat in a ranch of 109,270 hectares and mountains.Julia Morgan is one of his favorite architects, when Hearst asked him to design a " Japanese-Swiss " one-story bungalow, he probably thought the house should look like a Berkeley bungalow. , combined with Japanese architecture shown in Artisan style. Morgan probably didn't think she was participating in a 20-year project.

Build a palace in the wilderness

Despite business needs, Hearst also spent a lot of time working closely with Morgan on architecture, one of his passions. When developing the project, it is also when Morgan has to organize hiring workers, find materials and know how many priceless antiques to build. All food and wooden furniture are transported by ship to the location. People built a pier and many warehouses in the small village of San Simeon at the foot of the mountain. Right place to do housing for workers, because there is no town nearby. From the warehouse, the goods provide sorting and transfer to the hill by crawler truck on a special construction road.

Working in a modest makeshift house, Morgan commanded a group of male and female designers, and a platoon of workers. Hearst and Morgan both agreed to build reinforced concrete to cope with the shoreline or earthquakes in California, proportionally proportional and dazzling decorations like a Renaissance Spanish palace.

Intending to immediately build 3 military houses completed in 1921 is a massive guesthouse with 8-10 rooms and a wooden pile of many floors down the hillside. The entire hilltop will be decentralized with 51 hectares of parks, terraces with terraces, tennis courts and equestrian roads covered with high trellis trellis, so that Hearst can ride with the guests on a walk very comfortable. The main house or Casa Grande with an area of ​​5,640m ² , 130 rooms in the style of the Spanish Renaissance double cathedral, follows La Ronda cathedral in Spain. Opposite the 3 field warriors crossing a square to create landscapes, formed a rural village on the top of a hill, creating a rich landscape like the Eden garden in the middle of a wild forested area.

As with many details in Hearst's endless stretching project, Neptune pool has designed, built, demolished, redesigned and built a few times, mixing the features of a Roman temple with the colonnade and neoclassical sculpture. ( Photo: betterphoto)

As work progresses, no work seems to be complete. If Hearst wants to replace a larger fireplace in the room or make the pool bigger or he sees some kind of architectural interest, the concrete walls, ceiling or fireplace must also be removed and redesigned. Neptune 155m ² open-air swimming pool is expanded when added to the façade with Roman temples and columns. Casa Grande eventually had people in 1927.

There is also an extravagant indoor bathhouse and a green brick pool with lots of Byzantine architecture, a zoo with lions, zebras and other foreign animals, only in Casa Grande, 41 fireplaces, 61 bathrooms, 38 bedrooms, and many libraries, suites, kitchens, a cinema and dining room; all built under the supervision of Julia Morgan. For 20 years, she came to San Simeon every day at the end of the night train after 7 days of working in her office in San Francisco to supervise construction and detailed design as well as consult with her body. Hearst owner.

With an indecent personality, Hearst displayed the main residence, or Casa Grande , adapted from a Spanish cathedral, featured in a small village of visitors for field warriors. There is a bedroom in the tower. (Photo: yenwen)

The dream is not complete

La Cuesta Encantada never completed. Construction remained steady until 1937 even when Hearst's huge career was near exhaustion. Piled up, he was forced to restructure and cut down on his wasteful lifestyle. In 1947, in addition to a fourth floor and the last floor, Hearst at the age of 84 came to San Simeon for the last time. After he died in 1951, the ballroom wall in the diagram still unfinished - bare concrete walls were to link with the house still visible.

The blue and gilded tiles of the indoor pool sparkle like the Byzantine Empire throne room. (Photo: yenwen)

Reckless construction praises Hearst's wealth and his iconic demeanor helps shape the 20th century. Despite the old-fashioned deep-ceilinged ceilings bought from Spanish monasteries, La Cuesta Encantada is not a museum or a reconstruction of a historic building, but a modern mixed house with the past in a discrete carpet. After his death, this place no longer had the meaning of a personal property. His family transferred this house to California state in 1957 to work as a state park, and is still one of the state's most popular tourist attractions.