Hearst Castle

Julia Morgan, the woman who built the castle

In 1919, Hearst hired San Francisco architect Julia Morgan — the first woman granted an architect's licence in California — to build his home. Their collaboration lasted nearly three decades, from 1919 to 1947, a continuous cycle of construction, modification and embellishment. Morgan designed the Mediterranean Revival estate and filled it with art and antiques from Hearst's vast collection. Alongside the main house and guest bungalows, she was entrusted with designing a zoo and game reserve — home to lions, tigers, chimpanzees, zebras, camels and kangaroos. The zebras, as it turned out, would have the last laugh: their descendants, more than a hundred of them, still graze on the Hearst Ranch to this day, and can often be spotted from Highway 1 on the drive up.

A day at the castle

Guests were greeted at the railway station and chauffeur-driven up the hill through Hearst's private zoo, where lions, elephants and zebras grazed on either side of the road — an effect somewhere between Jurassic Park and a fever dream. By day there was horse riding, tennis (tournaments were hosted by Fred Perry) and swimming in the Neptune or Roman pools. At precisely 7:30pm, guests met for drinks in the Assembly Room. "You'd get one weak martini, or two if you were quick!" recalled Cary Grant — for Hearst's three cardinal rules were no drunkenness, no off-colour jokes, and no sexual relations between unmarried couples. Dinner followed at 9pm, where ketchup bottles sat incongruously beside some of the world's finest wines, before guests retired to the Billiard Room and, finally, a film in Hearst's private cinema.

" "Life in this Hearstian empire is lived according to the disciplinary measures laid down by its dictator." — Gloria Vanderbilt

Gossip, scandal and a film called Citizen Kane

Once Hearst retired to bed, the out-of-sight, out-of-mind mentality took over. Cary Grant and David Niven told stories of creeping up and down the halls to see who was still up for the party. Grant, a regular visitor who loved the tennis courts, allegedly once flour-bombed the castle from an aeroplane for a giggle; on his return, his bags were packed and he was asked to leave — the only recorded instance of Cary Grant being asked to leave anywhere. Harpo Marx, meanwhile, once dressed the outdoor statues in mink coats stolen from the Hearst vault, only for it to rain that night. No account of Hearst Castle is complete without the film Hearst tried to destroy. In 1941, Orson Welles released Citizen Kane, whose protagonist, Charles Foster Kane, was transparently based on Hearst — right down to a palatial estate, "Xanadu," modelled on San Simeon. Hearst used every weapon in his arsenal to suppress it. The film flopped, and was only recognised as a masterpiece decades later. When Hearst died in 1951, he left Marion Davies the estate; she promptly sold it back to the Hearst Corporation for a single dollar. "It wasn't about the money," she said. The castle was later gifted to the State of California as a public monument, which it remains today.