Belvoir Castle
Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire, pronounced Beaver locally, is one of the grandest and most strikingly romantic country houses in England, a Gothic Revival castle of the early nineteenth century crowning a ridge above the Vale of Belvoir in the East Midlands and serving as the ancestral seat of the Dukes of Rutland, whose family has occupied this site continuously since the eleventh century. The present building, completed in the 1830s, replaces several predecessors on the same ridge, the earlier buildings having been demolished, burned or allowed to decay over the centuries, but the continuity of aristocratic occupation gives the site a depth of family history unusual even among England's great country houses.
The castle was designed principally by James Wyatt and later Matthew Wyatt in an elaborate Gothic Revival style that captures the romantic imagination of what a medieval castle should look like rather than reproducing the defensive practicality of genuine medieval military architecture. Towers, turrets, battlements and pinnacles create a picturesque composition on the skyline that is visible for considerable distances across the flat Vale of Belvoir below, and the effect in certain lights, particularly at dusk or in winter, approaches the theatrical quality of a stage set for a Gothic novel.
The interior of the castle contains one of the finest private collections of furniture, paintings and works of art in England. The paintings include works by Poussin, Holbein, Reynolds and Gainsborough among others, displayed in a series of state rooms of considerable splendour. The Elizabethan Room, the Regent's Gallery, the Ballroom and the King's Bedroom are among the most impressive spaces, and the overall quality of the interior reflects the resources and collecting ambitions of a family that has been among the wealthiest in England for several centuries.
The grounds of the castle include formal gardens, parkland and the estate village of Knipton, and a programme of events throughout the year including jousting tournaments and outdoor theatre adds to the visitor offer.