Travel notes of Hershey Castle

Hershey, Naihurst, full name-william randolph hearst, American media tycoon.

Hershey Castle is located on the top of the mountain 500 meters from sea level on the west coast of the Pacific Ocean in central California, USA. It is surrounded by mountains on three sides and faces the sea on one side. Not long ago, our family of three witnessed the real content of the castle.

As far as I know, Hershey Castle should not be called an old castle. First, it is not ancient. It was built in 1947 and has not been completed yet. Modern architecture at most; Second, there is no castle, which is not worthy of the name. It is far from European castles. To be precise, it should be called the Mediterranean Renaissance Manor. However, you can't underestimate its value, because there are precious cultural relics from all over the world hundreds to thousands of years ago in that magnificent building.

Transfer from the parking lot at the foot of the mountain to the sightseeing bus and walk up the winding mountain road. The mountains are continuous, the vision is broad, and the winding path is secluded.

That day, I was caught in a thick fog blowing from the western Pacific, and the wind was blowing in the direction of the castle. The two bell towers of the castle were shrouded in dense fog, adding a wisp of fairy dust to the mysterious castle.

Seeing our curious expression, a staff member of the castle came forward and pointed to a large fog and said to us, "This weather shows that there will be a storm tonight." Seeing that we were a little dumbfounded, the staff member skillfully said, "According to my observation for many years, every time this kind of celestial phenomenon happens, there will be a storm behind it." He told us with great interest: "When the clouds are low, the castle looks like a mirage from a distance, just like a fairyland". We were all fascinated by his vivid explanation.

Walking on the sidewalk, a stone carving caught our attention. The daughter suddenly pointed to the stone carving placed by the roadside and exclaimed: "The sarcophagus! This is a sarcophagus! This is exactly the same as the sarcophagus I saw in the basement of Vatican Catholic Church! The daughter immediately asked the staff why the sarcophagus appeared here. The staff told us a story behind a castle: he said that the sarcophagus did not belong to the Hearst family, but was an item collected by Mr. Hearst. The owner of the sarcophagus is a young man who is only 2 1 year old, and his name is engraved on this sarcophagus.

The staff couldn't tell the relationship between the owner of the sarcophagus and Mr. Hurst, and they didn't know why the young man died and whether to bury the coffin after his death. In a word, Mr. Hurst transported the beautifully made sarcophagus from Europe to the castle together with other cultural relics he bought.

The staff also told us that Mr. Hurst likes collecting. During the Second World War, Mr. Hurst specially went to Europe to collect cultural relics during the war. At present, there are more than 65,438+05,000 precious cultural relics from Europe and all over the world in this castle. Some cultural relics are very precious. For example, the Egyptian statue of Sai kmeth on the south side of the square is the most representative ancient artwork in the castle. The statue sitting on it and the small bust on the right have a history of more than 3000 years.

On the north side of the square, we also witnessed Mr. Hurst's collection of China cultural relics. As far as I know, Mr Hurst has never been to China. These cultural relics should have been plundered to Europe by the invaders when Eight-Nation Alliance invaded China, and bought and collected by Mr. Hurst during World War II.

The main building of Hershey Castle has 1 15 rooms. The huge tapestries, famous paintings, all kinds of furniture and decorations on the wall of this party hall are rare cultural relics. According to Mr. Hurst's wishes, Julia Morgan, a female designer, selected the most valuable artworks and antiques from many collections and decorated every room, garden, path and swimming pool.

The swimming pool is divided into indoor and outdoor, and the outdoor swimming pool is named Poseidon Pool after Poseidon in Roman mythology. The Temple of Poseidon Pool is a composite structure, using a variety of building materials, including 1 Roman marble columns from the 4th century. A statue of Italian Poseidon in the17th century is placed on the facade of the temple, which is the crowning touch of the swimming pool.

The indoor swimming pool, named Roman Pool, uses more than 654.38+100,000 crystal glass bricks, some of which contain gold foil, which is extremely luxurious.

After the visit, Hershey Castle left me an imaginary space. Why did Mr. Hearst build such an impractical but extremely luxurious charming villa? Why did his descendants donate this castle to the California government?

I guess Mr. Hurst wants to apply his lifelong collection to real life and build a museum with a flavor of life for future generations. As for the donation, it may be Mr. Hurst's wish before his death. Hurst's descendants can't afford the huge tax burden and huge maintenance fees. In a word, hershey Castle is a magnificent building and a great work of art, which is not only reflected in the Mediterranean architectural style of Spain, ancient Greece and Rome, but also in the extraordinary value of the integration of architectural art and rare cultural relics.

A historical information about He's family is as follows: 1865, william hearst's father George Hearst bought this 160 square kilometer mountain farm. Little Hearst spent his childhood here. When phoebe hearst, little Hearst's mother, died in 19 19, the manor had been expanded into a farm of 1000 square kilometers in Fiona Fang. Little Hearst inherited his mother's legacy, and at the same time, the renovation of the farm and the construction of the mansion began. 1947, after Hearst's health deteriorated and he moved out, the construction of the mansion stopped. 195 1 year, william hearst died. 1957, his family donated this mansion and manor with 165 rooms to California because they could not afford the high inheritance tax.

Today, Hershey Mansion and Manor belong to California State Park, which has attracted millions of tourists from all over the world for more than 50 years. In order to attract business and attract attention, the tourism industry calls this mansion "Hershey Castle".