Private Splendor: Great Families at Home

About this book

This beautiful volume explores eight European estates that despite war taxes and the passage of time have remained in the same families for centuries. The photographs are redolent in atmosphere and the text is revealing due to the authors long friendships with the owners of these great houses. Offering an inside view of a highly refined way of life Private Splendor reveals the secrets that kept these homes in private hands. The houses include Sevilles Casa de Pilatos owned by Spains most illustrious grandee; Harewood House in Yorkshire owned by a cousin of Queen Elizabeth; Germanys Schloss Regensburg occupied by the flamboyant Princess Gloria von Thurn and Taxis; and the Palazzo Sachetti near Vatican City whose enormous Sala dei Mapi is entirely frescoed by Francesco Salviati (15101563). This beautiful volume explores eight European estates that despite war taxes and the passage of time have remained in the same families for centuries. The photographs are redolent in atmosphere and the text is revealing due to the authors long friendships with the owners of these great houses. Offering an inside view of a highly refined way of life Private Splendor reveals the secrets that kept these homes in private hands. The houses include Sevilles Casa de Pilatos owned by Spains most illustrious grandee; Harewood House in Yorkshire owned by a cousin of Queen Elizabeth; Germanys Schloss Regensburg occupied by the flamboyant Princess Gloria von Thurn and Taxis; and the Palazzo Sachetti near Vatican City whose enormous Sala dei Mapi is entirely frescoed by Francesco Salviati (15101563).