Belvedere House and Gardens
country house in Ireland
Belvedere House and Gardens is a country house located approximately 8 kilometres (5 mi) from Mullingar, County Westmeath in Ireland on the north-east shore of Lough Ennell. It was built in 1740 as a hunting lodge for Robert Rochfort, 1st Earl of Belvedere by architect Richard Cassels, one of Ireland's foremost Palladian architects.
The house is known for its Diocletian windows and nineteenth-century terracing. When Robert Rochfort decided to use Belvedere as his principal residence, he employed French stuccatore Barthelemij Cramillion, to execute the Rococo plasterwork ceilings. The landscaped demesne has the largest folly and spite wall in the country, The Jealous Wall, built to block off the view of his estranged brother's house nearby. There is also Victorian walled garden and several hectares of forest. The house has been fully restored and the grounds attract approximately 160,000 visitors annually.
History
The house was initially built by Robert Rochfort as a retreat, having incarcerated his wife in their previous home at Gaulstown, for an alleged affair with his brother Arthur. Arthur was later put on trial and fined £20,000 which he could not pay. Arthur spent 18 years in debtors' prison in Dublin but was released upon Robert's death.
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This entry incorporates text from “Belvedere House and Gardens” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.