In Manhattan, New York City, Central Park is home to the absurd Belvedere Castle. It comprises exhibit spaces, an observation deck, and has housed the official meteorological station for Central Park since 1919.
Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mould created the Belvedere Castle in 1867.
The plan planned for a Manhattan schist and granite edifice with a corner tower and conical cap, a lookout over parapet walls beneath it. It was an architectural fusion of the Romanesque and Gothic styles. Belvedere, which in Italian means “beautiful view,” is the source of the word’s name.
History
The architects Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mould developed the castle as an addition to their Greensward Plan, which they co-authored with Frederick Law Olmsted. Midway through 1865, Olmsted and Vaux were rehired to their positions after departing abruptly a few years earlier. Vaux made the decision to develop this location in 1867 and planned to construct Belvedere Castle on the ledge above the Croton Reservoir. The Croton Aqueduct board had responsibility over the existing fire tower on the property, therefore it was destroyed.
Belvedere Castle’s original blueprints planned for two turreted stone towers, one larger on the eastern elevation and one smaller on the western elevation. It was redesigned in November 1870 by Tammany Hall to cut expenses, and when it was finished, it was an open Mould-designed painted-wood pavilion. While the western structure was never erected, the eastern structure was finished by 1871. The castle has been hidden from the original vista as the vegetation have grown. The highest point in the park is its turret.
Belvedere Castle was made inaccessible to the public in the 1960s when the New York Meteorological Observatory automated its equipment and relocated its offices to Rockefeller Center. As a result, Belvedere Castle experienced significant vandalism, neglect, and decay.
Restorations in Belvedere Castle
Initial restorations
On May 1, 1983, the building was reopened after a restoration project was started by the Central Park Conservancy. The old turret was swapped out. Rebuilt pavilions and a visitor centre were added to the castle. The painted wooden loggia of the castle was replaced in 1995 by the Conservancy’s Historic Preservation Crew using surviving granite piers and walls and designs from the 1860s. A $340,000 grant was given the same year to help renovate the castle so it could serve as the Henry Luce Nature Center. In 1996, the restoration was finished.
Second restorations
The Central Park Conservancy renovated Belvedere Castle a second time in 2018. Designs were for installing double-paned glass in place of the current doors and windows. The Conservancy also suggested building a new ADA-compliant access path from East Drive. It has been said that the entry walk, which is actually an elevated ramp with parapets, adds an unneeded barrier to the otherwise nature park. The castle reopened on June 28, 2019, after a $12 million renovation, including a geothermal heating and cooling system that the Central Park Conservancy had installed.
Follow us on Reddit
Design of Belvedere Castle
The outside of Belvedere Castle is an open-air shell with doors and windows. When the castle underwent reconstruction in 1983, the main tower, which had a weather antenna on top originally, was changed to a German-style structure with a flag, a weather vane, and an anemometer on top. Without painting and maintenance, the two ornate half-timbered wooden pavilions decayed and were taken down about 1900.
The New York Meteorological Observatory, which the US Weather Bureau had taken over, was housed in Belvedere Castle. Although wind equipment is still housed on the main tower, the Automatic Surface Observing System (ASOS), the current weather station in Central Park, is situated just south of the castle.
The second-highest natural elevation in the park, Vista Rock is a 130-foot-tall (40 m) schist protrusion that is topped by the castle. (At a height of 137.5 feet, Summit Rock at 83rd Street overlooking Central Park West is higher) (41.9 m) As seen from the formal Bethesda Terrace, it crowns the naturally appearing woodlands of The Ramble and is made of Manhattan schist quarried in the park and decorated with grey granite.
For the ingenious submerged transverse roadway, which still transports commercial and other traffic through the park invisibly, the natural rock had to be tunnelled through.
Inside Belvedere Castle
The castle deteriorated throughout the years, but in 1983 the Central Park Conservancy repaired it and reopened it. It is presently used as the Henry Luce Nature Observatory. Visitors will find a sizable collection of natural history objects within, including paper-mache birds and skeletons. In order to provide visitors a better understanding of how naturalists investigate the world, the property also has microscopes and telescopes.
Individuals who want to explore Central Park scientifically might utilise the field packs provided by the castle, which include binoculars, reference books, maps, and a notebook to record observations.
Finally, the castle is a great place for birdwatchers to spot hawks, kestrels, or ospreys.
Belvedere Castle Presents
As a visitor centre and souvenir store, the castle is now in use. Birding and other Central Park Conservancy discovery programmes for families, as well as a variety of history and natural history programmes led by NYC Urban Park Rangers, including stargazing/astronomy and wildlife-education events, are just a few of the free family and community events held at Belvedere Castle.
The Croton Aqueduct system’s rectangular receiving reservoir was once visible from the eastern elevation. The reservoir was filled with debris from city construction projects, starting with waste from the 1930s construction of the IND Eighth Avenue Line of the New York City Subway, which is currently home to the A, B, C, and D trains. Currently, the Great Lawn and Turtle Pond, which used to be the receiving reservoir’s location, are visible from the eastern elevation.
People also ask:
How old is Belvedere How old is Belvedere Castle?
The building initially had no windows or doors as it was intended to be an open-air lookout tower. The entire complex, which was finished in 1872, was created as a location from which to appreciate views of the surrounding environment.
Why is Belvedere Castle so Why is Belvedere Castle famous?
Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mould originally meant Belvedere Castle to be a Victorian Folly, a fantastical building that offers a beautiful setting and views but has no practical use.
Can you get married at Belvedere Castle?
Despite the fact that you can’t get married there, we nonetheless advise couples to climb the castle after the ceremony so your photographer can get fantastic images from the terrace below! The covered terrace also provides some shelter from snow or rain.
Do you need tickets for Belvedere Palace?
Only those who have a valid time-slot ticket are permitted to visit the Upper and Lower Belvedere.
Source : wikipedia.org | please dm for removals
Read more from us : Trustees Developed the Naumkeag House and Garden
