Miramont Castle
A Forty Six Room House Of 1895 Built Into The Hillside Above Manitou Springs By A French Priest, Combining Nine Distinct Architectural Styles In One Building. Later A Sanatorium, And Saved By The Local Historical Society In 1976. · Manitou Springs, Colorado
Father Jean Baptiste Francolon came to Manitou Springs from France for his health in the 1890s, and between 1895 and 1897 he built himself a house of forty-six rooms into the hillside above the town. He could not settle on a style, so he used nine: Queen Anne, Romanesque, Byzantine, Tudor, Moorish and others, stacked into one building with sixteen-sided rooms, a two-hundred-ton sandstone fireplace and walls four feet thick. He left within a few years, and the Sisters of Mercy ran it as a tuberculosis sanatorium for decades afterwards. By the 1970s it was derelict and due for demolition; the Manitou Springs Historical Society bought it in 1976 and has been restoring it ever since, room by room. It is odd, over-ambitious and entirely unlike anything else in Colorado - and it is run by volunteers, which means the hours vary and the person showing you the sixteen-sided room probably helped restore it.
9 Capitol Hill Avenue, Manitou Springs, Colorado, 80829, United States
Open most days year-round during daytime hours, with reduced winter hours and closure on some holidays; it is run by a local historical society, so staffing and hours vary more than at a commercial attraction. Admission is charged and is modest. The tea room operates on its own schedule and is popular enough to need booking. Parking is limited on a narrow hillside street. Seasonal events include Christmas programming, which fills the house.