The Gardens of Castle Miramar 
most imposing view of the castle is from the 
sea. The steamer which makes the journey 
daily from Trieste, on doubling a last head¬ 
land, affords a view of each successive projec¬ 
tion of the building which abuts upon the 
azure waters above a high sea-wall, the base of 
which is laved by the Adriatic, upon whose 
bosom, on calm days, are reflected the archi¬ 
tecture and the surrounding woods. 
I'he views 
given here have 
been especially 
taken for this 
magazine. 
With the ex¬ 
ception of the 
“ T h rone 
Room,” the 
castle has no 
very spacious 
halls, for the 
Prince never 
intended mak¬ 
ing Miramar 
anything else 
than his home. 
An extensive 
library, how¬ 
ever, and many 
other relics of 
its former lord are to-day its chief attractions. 
Even the furniture, which remains just as it was 
when the Prince left it never to return, is of the 
simplest kind ; and it is not without a feeling 
of pity that the visitor notices Oueen Marie 
Antoinette’s writing-table, the gift of the Em¬ 
peror Louis Napoleon to Prince Maximilian. 
A pergola upheld by pillars of red and 
white bricks and covered with wistaria ieads 
straight from the eastern side of the castle 
to the caffeehaus , dividing the woods on the 
south from a series of Italian and Dutch formal 
gardens on the north. These gardens have 
been placed at an angle with the pergola, so 
that they may be graded down to the wall 
beside the sea. This has been done by means 
of three terraces, the upper one being very ex¬ 
tensive and elaborate, as the illustrations show. 
I'he pergola and the more architectural por¬ 
tions of the gardens are richly and tastefully 
studded with mythological bronze and marble 
statues. H ere they have been placed on 
ancient columns from Aquileia, there they 
stand on modern pedestals of granite. Run¬ 
ning nearly parallel with the pergola is the 
camelia avenue, sheltered on both sides by 
laurel-trees. Farther to the north, beyond 
the formal gardens, are a ruin, a propagating 
house, and before the “ little castle ” is a 
symmetrical parterre. South of the pergola 
the woods spread over a wide area, extending 
as far as the stables, wine cellars and service 
houses. The 
thickly planted 
trees are pene¬ 
trated by ser¬ 
pentine walks, 
in the convolu¬ 
tions of which 
are several 
lakes and also a 
small nursery 
garden. Skirt¬ 
ing the wood 
upon the verge 
of the sea is the 
high road to 
Trieste, com¬ 
manded by the 
porter’s lodge 
at the entrance 
to the gardens. 
I'he only other 
is by the road 
crossing the railway near the station. Phis 
building is but a hundred and fifty yards from 
the entrance to the grounds, and is two hun¬ 
dred and seventy feet above the castle itself. 
East of the woods are orchards and openly 
planted groves, extending to the boundary of 
the village of Grignano. At many places in the 
groves is heard the cheerful melody of water 
in marble fountains, and the beds of exotic 
flowers in the formal garden make, by their 
combination of shade and color, a veritable 
mosaic to the background formed by the sea. 
Signor Lamarmora, the prefect of Schloss 
Miramar, to whom I am indebted for the plan 
of the gardens, has made the melancholy re¬ 
mark, “ Never did the Prince see this creation 
of his mind in its present superb reality.” 
With the assistance of the prefect and the 
head gardener of Miramar, the following out¬ 
line of the bora has been made. Along the 
avenue from the main portal of the grounds 
to the entrance of the castle are to be found 
A FOUNTAIN EAST OF THE CASTI.E 
W 
ay of driving to Miramar 
150 
