Hearst Castle

Cambria is right next to San Simeon, where the Hearst Castle is located. William Randolph Hearst constructed the 165 room estate over some 30 odd years and filled it with art treasures from all over Europe. It's now a state monument and very nicely set up and organized.

The entire tour was pretty interesting but I really only liked parts of the castle. I enjoyed most of the "original" construction, i.e. stuff that wasn't based on or built around some artifact bought of some medieval church or castle somewhere in Europe. Both the outdoors Neptune pool as well as the indoor pool were pretty breath taking. The "medium" guest house and all the terraces and gardens were neat--the flowers and citrus trees made for a very pleasing aroma. The marble statues that were commissioned by Hearst fit well into their environment.

What I didn't care that much about was the bottom floor of the main house. The "Casa Grande" is built and re-built around artifacts that Hearst collected over the years. The collected statues, pillars, doorways, fire places, church pews, facades, etc. drove the construction of the house. It ends up looking a bit disjointed and too cluttered. I have been trying to put my finger on what was bugging me about it and I've decided that when you take art and architectural details out of context, they simply lose too much.

Still, the place must have been fascinating with the celebrities that were visiting all the time. And apparently Hearst was quite progressive and his hundreds of employees only had good things to say about him (wouldn't you, if you had a job with benefits in the middle of the depressions?) If we make it to San Simeon again, we'll probably take some of the other tours as well.