Hearst Castle

Hearst Castle, near Cambria on the Californian Coast, was built by the Hearst family, who made their money in mining and media (newspapers, movies, magazines including Cosmopolitan). The castle (or ranch, as William Hearst referred to it, since his real castle was in Wales) has three large guest houses in addition to the main building. Unlike the Windsor Mansion, it has a consistent (mediterranean) theme throughout. There was also once a private zoo on the grounds, complete with polar bears, zebras, and elephants!!

William Hearst used to have guests at the house, including Walt Disney, Greta Garbo and Clark Gable. They could use the indoor or outdoor pools (some tiles around the indoor pool have gold leaf on them) as well as the tennis courts. Each evening, William would watch a newsreel and film with his guests (who were sometimes the stars from the film) before retiring to his office where he worked until 6am each night.


The castle is now a Californian state park and open for tours. There are 3-5 tours to choose from depending on the time of year. We went on introductory tour one on the Saturday afternoon, and tour two of the upper floors on the Sunday morning. Because of the rare and light sensitive artifacts throughout the house photography is only allowed if you turn off your flash. The windows also have UV coatings to help with the preservation.

Being preserved are huge tapestries that are hundreds of years old, a library of books, Persian rugs and antique furniture. William Hearst collected ceilings and doors that were also hundreds of years old. None of this compares in age to the busts and statues, including four Egyptian pieces aged 3,000-3,500 years.

Since the castle is on a hill top, and the road is very winding, we had to park at the guest centre at the base of the hill. The only traffic allowed up the hill is the tour buses and the tour guides cars. At the visitor centre there is also a National Geographic theatre with a screen similar in size to those of IMax. The tour tickets come with a ticket for entry to the theatre, which shows a short film introducing guests to the history of the castle.