Hearst Castle

One of the best sights on the central coast is Hearst Castle. Located just below Big Sur, it is perched high on a hill overlooking pastures and the Pacific.

Built by William Randolph Hearst, the legendary newspaper tycoon, it was started in 1919 by Julia Morgan, and was in a continual state of rebuild. Many areas are still unfinished - Hearst died in 1951 aged 88 and the property was eventually given to the state of California, who have maintained it, but made no new additions.

Below is the Casa Grande - the main house.

This shows one of the Guest Houses.

Hearst was of course the model behind Orson Well's Citizen Kane film. The film concentrates on the meaning of Citizen Kane's last word 'rosebud'; this was the town where Hearst's parents George and Phoebe had originally lived.

On to: The Neptune Pool

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