Hardwick Hall UK
Rating: 7,9/10 (652 votes)  Hardwicke Hall is another country residence, an example of Elizabethan architecture, located in Derbyshire. The peculiarity of this estate was that it was built without any fortifications and was clearly not intended for defense in hostilities, as was the case with most of the castles of northern Europe. For the Tudor era, the building is surprisingly symmetrical and harmonious.
Hardwicke Hall was built in the 1590s and was assigned to the Countess of Shrewsbury Bass Hardwicke, the architect who created this building was named Robert Smithson, he is the author of the Longleat and Wollaton estates. The Countess was an unusual, very temperamental and domineering woman. Her dream was to build a new palace to replace the old Hardwicke Hall, in which she herself was born and whose ruins can be seen to this day.
Countess Bess had 4 husbands, with each of whom her ambitions and wealth only multiplied. By the age of 70, she had amassed enough fortune to be considered the richest woman in the country, and then began to fulfill her project to build a new Hardwick Hall. The construction took 6 years.
Outwardly, the resulting building was not too lush and chic, but the furnishings and interiors were done with taste and many details. The western facade has at least 50 large and medium-sized windows that allow the sun's rays to enter. In order for everyone to know exactly who the real mistress of the castle is, Countess Bess ordered to inscribe her initials on the four square towers that crown the building.
Descendants of the Countess - the dynasty of the Dukes of Devonshire - almost never lived in Hardwicke Hall, preferring the more modern Chatsworth House. However, they made every effort to ensure that the memory of Bess was preserved. Today, Hardwicke Hall is a museum open to visitors, where you can see many of the things of its imperious owner, walk through the long galleries and the great hall.
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