Biltmore Estate: Where Affluence Abounds

Larger than life: Art that inspires us through the ages

The French Renaissance chateau-style design, with Gothic elements, invoked both grandeur and symmetry. The three-story mansion’s façade conveys an open top deck, wide arched doorway, decorative spires, cornices featuring carved gargoyles, and a windowed spiral staircase. (ZakZeinert/Shutterstock)

A member of one of America’s most affluent 19th-century families realized his architectural dream in the western North Carolina home he named Biltmore Estate. The name is loosely derived from George Vanderbilt’s Dutch heritage, “Bildt,” referring to a town in Holland; and “more,” an old English word meaning rolling, upland country, refers to the French chateau-style mansion designed by famed architect Richard Morris Hunt. Chateauesque exterior elements were inspired by both Hunt’s and Vanderbilt’s extensive European travels; these features include steeply pitched roofs and ornamented roof lines, as well as ornate finials, spires, and turrets.

The extravagant structure’s interior comprises 250 rooms, 35 of which are bedrooms and 43 are bathrooms, as well as 65 fireplaces. Considered technologically advanced with the installation of indoor plumbing and electricity (a luxury in the late 1800s), the house also boasts an indoor pool, a gymnasium, and a bowling alley. There is even a dumbwaiter large enough for a person to fit, and a system of “secret” corridors behind the library and banquet hall, and through closet areas in main bedrooms; these passageways were mostly used by Vanderbilt servants.

Biltmore’s doors were opened during a holiday housewarming on Dec. 24, 1895. As visitors approached, they would see a slate- and copper-roofed, limestone and steel mansion set against a vast expanse of Appalachian Mountain peaks. Visitors and guests enter the mansion by walking up the limestone steps flanked by life-size lion sculpture sentries, through the open iron gate into a towering vestibule. The estate also includes a winery, a giant greenhouse and gardens, a petting zoo, a pond, and walking and bike paths.

The courtyard has access to the north entrance and was built as protection for the house and gardens from the wind. (aalexandrasgallery/Shutterstock)

The largest room at Biltmore is the Banquet Hall, 72 feet long, 42 feet wide, and 70 feet high. Enormous 16th-century Flemish tapestries serve as the backdrop to the lengthy dining table with upholstered and hand-carved chairs, designed by the home’s architect, Richard Morris Hunt. Flags of some European nations are arranged high above the triple fireplace, while the mantle is a frieze, or sculpted decoration, called “The Return from the Chase.” (The Biltmore Company)

A favorite space of George Vanderbilt’s was the library. The room contains more than 20,000 volumes, many of which are rare and one-of-a-kind. The fireplace was carved by Austrian-born American sculptor Karl Bitter, while the ceiling is a painting by 18th-century artist Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini that was brought over from a palace in Venice, Italy. (The Biltmore Company)

Regal gold and plum-hued window treatments and bedding as well as gold silk wall coverings define the luxury of Edith Vanderbilt’s bedroom, complete with a privacy-curtain canopy bed. The oval domed ceiling is trimmed with layers of decorative moldings.  (The Biltmore Company)

An inlaid medieval hunt scene over matching fireplaces meld with the immense tapestries in Biltmore’s 90-foot-long Tapestry Gallery, which leads to the library. The tapestries are part of a set called “The Triumph of the Seven Virtues,” created in Belgium between 1525–1535. The ceiling is constructed of hand-painted wood beams. (The Biltmore Company)

Meant to house seasonal plants and flowers, the indoor Winter Garden’s main eye-level feature is a marble and bronze fountain with a statue of a boy and geese. Looking upwards reveals the hand-crafted, elaborate oak and walnut panes of the naturally lit atrium. Hanging bronze lights enabled the Vanderbilts to use the room after dark. (The Biltmore Company)