Blenheim Palace

Last crawled date: 2 years, 11 months ago

Blenheim Palace was designed by Sir John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor, and built between 1705 and circa 1724 in the short-lived English Baroque style, originally intended as a gift from a grateful nation to John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, and is festooned with stone cannon-balls, inverted fleur-de-lys, and a trophy bust of Louis XIV adorns the southern façade. Winston Churchill was born here. This is merely the central portion of the immense house. Modeling was rendered difficult by the 'fantastic roofscape' of stone belvederes, gilded copper balls, statues and balustrades. While vast numbers of photos are available of this major tourist attraction, they are from different cameras, taken at different times of day, and since the honey-colored sandstone of the estate's quarries failed to meet the demands of the construction, stone from more than 20 quarries was used, and the colors do not in fact match. (http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=7897) For some reason, all available photos of the roofscape were taken on rainy days. Vanbrugh's obsessive symmetry eased the task, but the east and west facades differ, and roof differences not always modeled. Texturing photos are by Magnus Manske under Creative Commons via Wikipedia; CameliaTWU via Flikr; 1blacksheep via Wordpress; Patrick Baty/paperspaints via Flikr for roofscapes; from Blenheim Palace site. #1700s #17th_Century #Blenheim #Blenheim_Palace #Churchill_birthplace #English_Baroque #Marlborough #Nicholas_Hawksmoor #Oxfordshire #palace #Sir_John_Vanbrugh #Vanbrugh #Woodstock