Waddesdon Manor

In 1874 Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild bought a bare agricultural estate in Buckinghamshire and decided to build his idea of a perfect weekend house. French architect Gabriel-Hippolyte Destailleur spent fifteen years raising it: a Neo-Renaissance château in the manner of Chambord, set on a hilltop after 30 feet of soil were stripped away to create the grand approach. The first house party was held in 1883.

Waddesdon was built for entertaining, and it entertained like nothing else in England. Guests included the future King Edward VII and, in 1890, Queen Victoria herself — for whose visit a small passenger lift was installed, though she reportedly declined to use it. The rooms filled with Ferdinand's legendary collections of 18th-century French furniture, Sèvres porcelain, and Renaissance objets d'art.

Ferdinand died in 1898, but three generations of Rothschilds kept the house and its collections growing. In 1957 it was bequeathed to the National Trust, which it now anchors as one of its most visited properties — with more than 463,000 visitors in 2019 — still managed by the Rothschild Foundation.