Hearst Castle - Pool

After our visit with cousins Eric and Sierra, we headed to the spectacular Hearst Castle in San Simeon. Ryan has been talking about this place for a really long time and I got excited about it after seeing the 1941 movie Citizen Kane. It is a CA historic landmark and state park, donated by the Hearst Corporation to the state, but the family can still use it whenever they want to and they still own some property around the area.

William Randolph Hearst was the man with the vision that carried out his dream of building such place with the help of his architect, Julian Morgan. He was a huge business man, the publisher of many newspapers such as the San Francisco Examiner, D.C. Hearld, D.C. Times and many, many more. He also published magazines like Cosmopolitan, Town and Country, and Good Housekeeping among others.

This is an amazing place. This guy had so much money! In 1919, he started building this enormous mansion, (which was not fully completed) over many years, bringing foreign antiques from all corners of the world and unique artifacts from ancient history…ancient history! I mean, 3rd century stuff we find in museums!  I’m not only talking about rugs and furniture, I’m talking about Roman columns, marble sculptures, and Gothic arches! It’s insane. There’s even real gold in parts of the house, like the pool tile. They said that he had so much stuff, that after his wife, girlfriend, and family members took some stuff, they donated some artifacts to museums throughout the state, and STILL, there’s tons of antiques left all over the mansion. It’s INSANITY, insanity!

Insanely beautiful though. He was pretty much obsessed with it. He would change his mind time after time after something was built, consequently having to start from scratch until he was fully satisfied with the final product.  I think they said the pool was rebuilt 3 times! He was very much involved in the whole process, from the building, to the decorations, and even the types of plants and landscape he wanted. His wish was to leave someone unique behind, something everyone would appreciate and be impressed by, and he did it! That was his dream.

I enjoyed the tour but just like any other tour, it’s too rushed and too many people. We want to go back and do other tours, there’s 5 different ones you can take to see different parts of he mansion. Amazing.

Enjoy the photos. Click on FS button at the bottom right of the gallery, for a full screen slideshow!

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