The love of ruins , sometimes called ruinophilia , has for centuries urge the cosmos of clever juke — a host of sham facades and hollow out - out castle shells found on grand English , European , and even American estates . The popularity of constructing unreal ruination was at its top during the eighteenth and 19th one C , but architects occasionally still incorporate them today .
Why build a anatomical structure that is already crumbling ? Between the 16th and nineteenth centuries , the popularity of imitative ruins was influenced by two factor — a classic education that apply the ideals of ancient Greece and Rome , and the extended duty tour of Europe ( known as The Grand Tour ) that well - to - do young men and adult female take after completing their educational activity . Travelers might start in London or France and ramble as far as the Middle East , but the stumble almost always include Italy and a probability to admire Roman ruins . More than a few affluent travelers returned home yearning to duplicate those ruins , either to complement a amatory landscape , to demonstrate wealth , or to ply a pretense of family history for thenewly rich .
Here are a few amorous wrecking constructed between the 18th and 21st one C .
1. SHAM CASTLE // BATHAMPTON, ENGLAND
Sham Castle ( show above ) is competently call — it ’s only a façade . The " castle , " overlooking the English city of Bath , was createdin 1762to better the sight for Ralph Allen , a local enterpriser and philanthropist as well as to provide chore for local stonemasons . From a distance it looks like a castle ruin , but it ’s merely a wall that has two three - story round turret and a two - story straight tugboat at either remnant . The castle is not the onlyfolly(as such purely decorative computer architecture is often call ) that Allen build . He also manufacture a sham span on Serpentine Lake in what is nowPrior Park Landscape Garden — the bridgecan’t be crossed , but provides a courteous focal stop for the lake . Today , Sham Castle is part of a private golf game course .
2. WIMPOLE FOLLY // CAMBRIDGESHIRE, ENGLAND
Building a structure that looks as if it ’s crumbling does not preclude having to do even upkeep . The four - story Gothic tower hump asWimpole Follyin Wimpole , Cambridgeshire , England , was built 1768 - 72 for Philip Yorke , first Earl of Hardwicke and owner of the Wimpole Estate . Owned by Britain ’s National Trust , the ruin threatened to truly crumble a few years ago , so refurbishment efforts were needed . The last restoration was so well done it won the 2016 European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage . TheWimpole Estateis now unfastened to the public for walks and hikes .
3. CAPEL MANOR FOLLY // ENFIELD, ENGLAND
Capel Manorat Bulls Cross , Enfield , England has been the land site of several expansive homes since the demesne ’s first recorded cite in the 13th hundred , so visitor might be tempted to believe that the manor house ’s ruins appointment back at least a few centuries . But that gumption of history is an illusion : The faux 15th - 100 house wasbuilt in 2010to bring visual solicitation to the manor house garden , which have been open to the public since the 1920s .
4. ROMAN RUIN // SCHONBRUNN PALACE, VIENNA, AUSTRIA
The Roman Ruin was build as a garden decoration for the 1441 - roomSchonbrunn Palace in Vienna , one of the most significant monuments in Austria . The ruin was once address The Ruins of Carthage , after the ancient North African metropolis overcome by Roman military force . But despite the illusion of ancientness , the ruins were created almost 2000 years after Carthage strike down in 146 B.C.E. The ruin ’s rectangular pool , framed by an intricate semi - circle arch , was design in 1778 by the architect Johann Ferdinand Hetzendorf von Hohenberg , who modeled it on the Ancient Roman temple of Vespasian and Titus , which he had seen an engraving of .
5. THE RUINEBERG // POTSDAM, GERMANY
One of the earliest examples of hokey ruins in Germany was the building complex of social organisation know asThe Ruinenberg . Frederick the neat , King of Prussia , had a summer palace in Potsdam , near Berlin , that was say to rival Versailles . In 1748 Frederick commission a enceinte outflow for the palace complete with hokey ruination . The water company part of his plan proved too unmanageable and was soon abandoned , but not before designer Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff constructed the ruin . The complex includes papistic pillars , a orotund tabernacle , and the wall of a Romanic dramatic art . Since 1927 the site has belong to to the Prussian Gardens and Palaces Foundation , Berlin - Brandenburg .
6. PARC MONCEAU // PARIS, FRANCE
ElegantParc Monceauis located in the stylish eighth arrondissement of Paris near the Champs - Elysees and Palais de l’Elysée . In 1778 , the Duke of Chartres decided to work up a mansion on land previously used for hunt . He have a go at it English architecture and garden , including the whimsy of nostalgic ruin , so he hire the architect Louis Carrogis Carmontelle to create an spendthrift park complete with a Romanist tabernacle , antique statues , a Taiwanese bridge circuit , a farmhouse , a Dutch windmill , a minaret , a small Egyptian Great Pyramid , and some fake gravestones . The most notable feature of the park is a pond surround by Corinthian column , now live as Colonnade de Carmontelle .
7. HAGLEY PARK CASTLE // WORCESTERSHIRE, ENGLAND
The wrecking of the medieval palace atHagley Parkin Worcestershire are definitely bastard , but they were built with detritus from the real downfall of a neighboring abbey . The folly was commission by Sir George Lyttelton in 1747 and plan by Sanderson Miller , an English pioneer of Gothic revival architecture . The castle has a orotund towerat each box , but by figure only one is double-dyed and embellish at heart with a pelage of arms . The grounds , which also boast atemple porticoinspired by an ancient Grecian tabernacle , some urns , and obelisk , are now in camera have and not assailable to the public .
8. TATA CASTLE RUINS // TATA, HUNGARY
French designer Charles de Moreau ( 1758 - 1841 ) was a assimilator of classic papistical architecture known for his power to counterfeit impressive ruins . Nicholas I , Prince Esterhazy of Hungary , hired him to work onTata Castleand to make the ruins of a Romanesque church for the palace ’s English Garden . Even though the ruining Moreau created was phony , he build it with the stones of a real ruin , the remnants of the early-12th - century Benedictine and later Dominican abbey of Vértesszőlős . A third - century ancient Roman gravestone and relief were placed nearby .
9. BELVEDERE CASTLE // MANHATTAN, NEW YORK
Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux designedCentral Parkin the mid-1800s , and their plan for creating romantic vistas include the construction of a craziness have sex as Belvedere Castle . The Gothic - Romanesque style loan-blend , overlooking Central Park ’s Great Lawn , was fill in in 1869 . Although the folly was project as a vacuous shell andmeant to be a ruin , it eventually served a practical role , housing a atmospheric condition bureau and exhibit space . The castle also provides a beautiful backdrop for Shakespeare in the Park productions , kindle the royal homes that play prominent function in the Bard ’s works .
10. FOLLY WALL IN BARKING TOWN SQUARE // LONDON
In a borough roll in the hay for its existent historic buildings , the ancient wall found in London’sBarking Town Squaremight await hundred former . It ’s not , and ironically , the paries is part of the square ’s renovation efforts . Thewall was builtby bricklaying students at Barking College using old brick and fall apart Harlan Stone token found at salvage yards . Known as the " confidential Garden , " named after the children ’s book about a walled garden , the wall was designed to screen a nearby supermarket and was unveiled in 2007 .
