Biltmore Estate

About this place

Biltmore Estate is a historic house museum on the southern edge of Asheville, North Carolina, about 5 km in a straight line south of the city centre. Its main residence, Biltmore House, is the largest privately owned house in the United States, with 16,623 square metres of floor space, and it is still owned by the descendants of the man who built it. George Washington Vanderbilt II built the house between 1889 and 1895 as a mountain retreat, naming it after De Bilt in the Netherlands, where his ancestors came from. New York architect Richard Morris Hunt designed it in the Châteauesque style, inspired by French Renaissance castles, and Frederick Law Olmsted shaped its grounds. The four-storey stone house has 250 rooms, including 35 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms and 65 fireplaces. Its 114 m facade, with steep roofs, towers and chimneys, faces a long lawn and fountain, while the terraces behind look out over forest to the Blue Ridge Mountains. The estate still covers about 3,200 hectares of woods, fields and gardens, including a walled garden, a conservatory and azalea gardens, and its outbuildings hold restaurants and shops. Entry is paid and booked online for a set date. Allow most of a day for the house and gardens, and wear comfortable shoes, as the grounds are large.