Castle Tour of the State Rooms

Grandeur. Magnificent. Breathtaking. Priceless. These are several words which may come to mind as you stroll through the state rooms of the Percy family's palace-like home. Our history professor's husband spent two and a half hours taking us through the rooms and telling us all sorts of knowledge in relation to what we were viewing. He is quite an expert. I am still in complete amazement of the beautiful Italian Renaissance design and style in which the rooms were done. We were not allowed to take photos, but I have used some photos from the Alnwick Castle website to show several of the state rooms.

Upon entering through the inner keep gate, you find yourself in a beautiful stone courtyard. Across the courtyard, we entered a room adorned with historic weapons. Guns, horns, swords, and spears artistically placed on the walls. It is the most 'castle-like' of all the rooms we viewed with the stone walls. The rest of the house is more like a palace behind a fortress of stone. Up a large, grand staircase and to the left, we walked into a spacious room which ultimately served no real purpose outside of show. It had a huge chandelier, marble statues, and famous portraits of the family members from centuries ago hung on the walls. The white and gold ceiling was of plaster, which featured various designs and flowers of no particular significance. On to the room before the library. Possibly, one of the most valuable rooms in terms of wealth do to the rare collection of paintings and frescoes. One of the earlier dukes was quite a collector when it came to fine art. The library, drawing room, dining room, and others were all very similar in appearance. All the fireplace carvings were done by Italian artists and all the ceilings were intricately created from wood. The splendor of it all in a single room could be admired for hours.