Manitou Springs: Miramont Castle

Thursday, 2 July 2015 (Part I)
Peregrine Pines FamCamp; USAFA, Colorado Springs — Colorado
Temps: Hi 76F (24C) / Lo 57F (14C)

Our days in CoS are winding down — fast.  Alternating sightseeing and hiking with relaxing at home, we found the days flew by too quickly.  So much to still see and do in the area.

Some might say that we should have spent more time exploring, but we like the pace we set ourselves … quite different from our “vacation” mode trips when we are traveling without the Phaeton.

Glimpse of the Miramont Castle Gardens.

Don’t let the patch of blue sky in the photo above fool you … it was momentary … here one minute; gone the next.  In fact, the skies threatened rain, with a high chance of precipitation in the forecast.  Figuring that an indoor activity would be preferable to the hike we planned to do, we looked to see what was available in the immediate area.  None of the museums enticed us, however, so we decided to check out a “castle” instead!

Miramont Castle was built in the mid 1890s by Father Jean Baptiste Francolon, a French Roman Catholic priest.  Obviously he didn’t believe in giving up his worldly goods!  That’s my opinion, though … according to information I read on our tour, he built the place in the style to which his wealthy, aristocratic mother was used to living.  Influenced by family travels, the castle he commissioned was constructed in a mix of styles — nine of them to be specific … ranging from medieval to Gothic, to Elizabethan, to Byzantine and Moorish.  Somehow it all works together without being too visually distracting.

Panorama of Miramont Castle —  built of locally quarried Greenstone found only in this area.
too bad these cars are parked out front instead of in the adjacent lot just a few steps away.
Don’t be fooled by the patchy blue sky, it’s a momentary lapse in the forecast and lasts
just long enough for me to take this photograph; drizzle for most of the rest of the day.
The tea house where we plan to have lunch is on the far left; behind the flagpole.

Fr Francolon and his mother moved into the castle in 1896.  One of the first events they hosted was a charity ball in February 1897 to raise funds for the Manitou Free Reading Room … Colorado society donated handsomely to dance the night away; spectators paid $1 each to watch them do so.  Two short years later, the Francolons suddenly left the area, selling the property to the Sisters of Mercy.  In 1904, the Sisters opened a sanitarium, which closed 14 years later, and Miramont was used as accommodations for visiting Sisters.  In 1946, the castle was sold again and converted into apartments — according to our waiter at the tea parlor, mostly rented to returning GIs.  It was another 30 years before the Manitou Springs Historical Society purchased the by then derelict property and restored it over a period of time to what it is now.

Historic photos from signage in front of Miramont Castle.
[Click for larger, more legible images.]

We were greeted warmly by a woman dressed in period costume.  After collecting the $9/person admission, she gave us a brief history of the property, handed us an information sheet, and sent us on our way to do the self-guided tour with the encouragement to take as many photos as we liked.  She suggested we start in the basement where a museum-within-a-museum houses exhibits from the Manitou Springs Fire Department.  Seeing that the family in the foyer with us headed there as recommended, we decided to start on the next floor, and visit the basement last.

The rest of this post will be a whirlwind virtual tour of the castle, with commentary in the form of captions.  I’m going to skip the exhibits housed in the castle and write about them in a separate post.  I should have listened to Mui and taken the ultra-wide angle lens for our castle visit.  But I didn’t, so I used my phone’s panorama setting to document the various rooms — distortion and all.  At least you’ll get a sense of what the various rooms have to offer.

Let’s get started — walking up one of the three missing stairways the Historical Society replaced during the renovation process …

Drawing Room, Music Alcove, and Greenhouse (thru the door next to the mannequin in the white
dress; now the tearoom).  Fr Francolon and his mother often hosted lavish receptions in this
drawing room.  The arch into the music alcove is one of the Byzantine features of Miramont.
The stone fireplace extends seven feet (2m) into the mountain that the house backs into.

Formal Dining Room … seems quite small to me, but I think at one time this room included the
walled corridor that was later built by the Sisters of Mercy and ran along the back
of the room and the kitchen.  The wallpaper is an authentic copy of a Victorian paper.

The Serving Kitchen is just that … no cooking here.  Fr Francolin and his mother were cared for by the Sisters of Mercy, who prepared the food in the sanitarium kitchen and brought it to the castle by way of an underground passage.  The once rusty cook stove seen here was scrubbed clean with Coca Cola … makes you wonder what that beverage does to our insides ;-)

Chapel Foyer with a portion of the Grand Staircase visible on the right side of the photo.
Woven into The tapestry rug on the wall are all of the American patriotic symbols of the time.
The wooden Christus was once suspended over the door of a mission church in San Luis Valley.

The Chapel Anteroom has a small exhibit of religious artifacts and a beautiful stained
glass window gifted to Miramont Castle by the family of Guy Boyd, Chairman of the
Board of the Historical Society.  The crucifix was thought to have been lost by a Sister
of Mercy; it was found in 1985, buried under three feet of soil in the castle gardens.

Montcalme [Quiet Mountain] Memorial Chapel is named in honor of the home Fr Francolon lived in
before he built the castle.  He donated that house to the Sisters of Mercy to use as a sanitarium.

Information in the handout we were given and the sign in the room is contradictory about
the use of this room at the time Fr Francolon and his mother lived at Miramont Castle.
One says that This eight-sided room was the dining room; the other states it was
the library.  Either way, it was converted into a chapel by the Sisters of Mercy.

Father Francolon’s Smoking Room

Taking the grand staircase up to the next floor, we dallied a bit to look at the many historic photos decorating the walls.  Unfortunately, no easy way of photographing the images with the light reflecting off the glass, so let’s keep going up to the solarium …

In Spanish, French, and Latin … Miramont means “look at the mountain.” …

… With a big window overlooking the scenery, the solarium is designed for just that purpose.
Originally, the roof of this room was glass; the Sisters of Mercy used it as an operating theater.

This Sixteen-sided Bedroom is part of a guest Suite off the solarium.

Marie Francolon’s Sitting Porch; back in the day, this was a covered porch with just a toe plate …
hence the shingle walls.  The Sisters of Mercy closed it in to make room for a patient.

Marie Francolon’s bathroom.  The claw-footed tub is original to the castle.

Glass cases in Marie Francolon’s dressing room display mementos from Manitou Springs’ past.
The dance program, for example, lists the names of US Supreme Court Justices and
US Congressmen, as well as other notables who were in attendance at the event.

According to some newspaper accounts Marie Francolon’s bedchamber was originally
painted pink.  The bed, which dates back to 1857, is not hers.  Her bed, which belonged
to Empress Josephine, stood over 13 feet (4 m) high with the canopy.  It was removed
from the castle before the property was purchased by the Historical Society.
The hexagonal room was initially intended to be Fr Francolon’s library.
According to reports from the Sisters of Mercy, there is a secret compartment
in the fireplace, but due to the delicate condition of the tiles, it remains hidden.

Fr Francolon’s bedchamber is one of two in the castle with original oak flooring.

Back in the day, rooms set aside for servants were not considered living space.
They were, therefore, not on the building plans, and the space was not taxed.  In
these servants’ quarters today is a display of toys, some of them dating to before 1900.

I’ll wrap up this post with some of the colorful blooms I enjoyed during a short wander through the Miramont Castle Gardens.

Blooms from the Victorian Garden.

More from our visit to Miramont Castle, and our wander around Manitou Springs, coming up in the next post.  In the meantime, for those interested, there are more photos in my online gallery, including snapshots of the information panels in each room.

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