Hearst Castle is a place to visit for at least once in your lifetime if you get a chance. You can never leave the Hearst Castle without stopping at their gift shop and buy various gifts for your friends and relatives. Also they have a museum to enjoy the antiques, special events for entertainment of the visitors. Theatre, zoos and gardens are for children. What we will talk about is their pristine pools which are nerve relaxing.
The story of Hearst Castle began when it was bought by George Hearst in 1865, a rich miner who purchased 40,000-acres of ranchland which also incorporated the Mexican Ranchos of Piedras Blancas, San Simeon, California. His son, William Randolp Hearst inherited the land from his mother and from then onwards the ranch grew up till 25,000 acres. Hearst Castle is a place where you find all that you can desire to relax yourself. Be it their gardens, zoos, theatres, gift shop and particularly their pools.
The Castle has two famous pools: the Roman pool and the Neptune pool. The Roman pool is seen as decorated with top ceiling to floor with a one inch square mosaic tiles. These tiles have a glass material and they are mainly colours in blue and orange with a fusion of gold in the inner side of the tiles. The breathtaking effect is made in this way by creating an intense shimmering gold effect in the pool. Other than that, Roman pool is finely bejewelled with Roman gods, goddesses and their famous heroes. This pool was made with keeping in mind the Roman bath effect. This pool specially represents the traditional marine monster theme that was also found in the ancient times of Roman baths.
The other pool of the Hearst Castle is the Neptune pool. The construction of this pool spanned for a long time. It was planned to build three swimming pools on this particular location and each of them was successively larger one than the previous one. The second adaptation of this pool was made on a series of concrete steps where the water would flow downwards. The statues of Neptune and the Nereid statues were kept in the temple’s pediment which was kept high on the Cascade.
It is often said that the current enlargement of the pool is done in such a manner so as to bring it closer to the Olympic size or Olympic pools size. Today Neptune pool stands in the Hearst Castle with 104 feet long, 95 feet wide niche and 58 feet wide. It has the special heating system of oil burning which makes it even more unique and attractive.