Last weekend, Eric and I took a rare few days off to visit the central coast of California. This gave me my third opportunity to visit William Randolph Hearst’s “Castle in the Sky”, Hearst Castle at San Simeon. Now this was a man who perfected the art of living and he definitely had the financial backing to do it in style!

I was happy to learn that even though he had the great fortune to be born into it, he actually worked very hard to build his publishing empire. A “grand tour” of Europe with his mother at the age of ten had fostered a great appreciation for for European art and architecture and he was an avid collector. His love for entertaining and inclination for excess led him to team up with the architect Julia Morgan to build (and in some cases rebuild repeatedly) one of our greatest national historic monuments.

This truly is a magnifient place in magical surroundings. Someone said, “If California had been discovered first, no one would live on the East coast.” There may be some truth to that as the views of the ocean and chaparrel and oak covered hills are some of the best parts of being there.

Besides the main house, there are seemingly endless garden terraces and three “smaller” guest houses. The “Casas” are some of my favorite interior spaces and they are intimate and yet filled with amazing architectural details, as the ceiling above right shows. While Hearst was building, it was a time when you could actually go to Europe and buy whole carved ceilings with abandon-and it would appear that Hearst did just that! There is some good info on their website, although unfortunately they seem to be a little stingy on showing you interior shots. Guess you’ll have to just go and see for yourself.