Anniversary Trip, Day 2a: The Biltmore Mansion

I decided to give our Biltmore Mansion tour its own post since there are so many pictures!

 After our early lunch we drove about 5 minutes to the Biltmore estate for our tour. The Biltmore estate is a huge mansion built on over 10,000 acres of land in the 1890s. The property was gorgeous with well-kept landscape and lush gardens. Erik and I walked around the gardens before our tour started. It was really hot and humid and sweat was dripping down my back. I enjoyed walking around the gardens despite being sweaty and hot.

We walked through the forest for a few minutes to get from the parking lot to the estate.

This sculpture was called "Diana;" she is goddess of the countryside and of the moon.

The house kept getting bigger the closer we got to it.

Free money!

George Vanderbilt decided to build his mansion here because of this view of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

This was supposed to be a fountain from Italy in the 1600s.

Erik really liked this covered walkway to the gardens

We walked around the main gardens and down to the conservatory in the distance

The conservatory was full of exotic plants from all over the world. There were several Mennonite families touring the estate too.

These ponds were called the Italian Gardens.

Wednesday July 27,2022

The inside of the Biltmore house was just as lavish as the gardens. We were given an audio tour guide to listen to as we walked through the house. There was no air conditioning, only fans. The inside was full of tapestries, etchings, and sculptures collected by George Vanderbilt. He insisted on having the best of everything inside his house, which makes Windsor Castle seem not so impressive. That guy had as much money or more than any British royalty. The tour took us about an hour and a half. We enjoyed seeing all the luxury and artistry of that huge mansion.

Waiting in line to go in the mansion

The main atrium

The banquet hall with its very own organ; notice the 400-year-old tapestries below the hunting trophies.

The private dining room for family meals

Vanderbilt collected works like these by Manet and Monet; he also liked Renoir.

These 3 tapestries in the hallway to the library are a set based on virtues: faith, prudence, and charity; they are 500 years old.

That's a Steinway piano in front of the prudence tapestry; how appropriate.

The library had 2 floors of books, a huge fireplace, and a very artistic ceiling.

Another view of the Blue Ridge mountains from the huge deck.

The music room had some strange instruments. It actually wasn't finished until after WWII when the US Government stored some valuable artwork there.

The spiral staircase was 5 stories high.

The upstairs sitting room looked more like a throne room.

The swimming pool was drained since it had a leak somewhere.

The basement had a swimming pool and a bowling alley.

After the tour, we went out to the old stable houses where the shops were. We bought a magnet but everything else was way too overpriced for me. We walked up the hill to our car and spent the next 20 minutes just driving off the Biltmore estate.

It takes a long time to drive off of a 10,000-acre property.