Free previewStop 7 of Central Park Walking Tour: The Pond to Belvedere Castle
The Castle That Got a Day Job
You're standing at the top of Vista Rock, the park's second-highest natural point, and the little gray castle in front of you is Belvedere Castle. Look at how its stone seems to rise straight out of the rock. It almost does: it's built of Manhattan schist, the same ancient bedrock under your feet, quarried right here in the park. Now find the top of the tower. Up there, beside the flag and the weather vane, is a small spinning instrument for measuring wind. Hold onto that. It's the twist in this story.
When Calvert Vaux, the architect who co-designed Central Park with Frederick Law Olmsted, drew this building with Jacob Wrey Mould in 1867, it wasn't meant to do anything at all. It was a folly, the Victorian word for a building put up purely for the pleasure of looking at it, and looking out from it.
That's the opening. The rest plays at stop 7 of Central Park Walking Tour: The Pond to Belvedere Castle (3 min in all). Unlock the tour to hear it all, or try stop 1 free first.
