Architecture: Blenheim Palace

Blenheim Palace is a residence near Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England, built (1705–24) by the English Parliament as a national gift to John Churchill, 1st duke of Marlborough. During the War of the Spanish Succession, he had led the English to victory over the French and Bavarians at the Battle of Blenheim in Germany in 1704. The palace was designed by Sir John Vanbrugh, with a great deal of involvement by Nicholas Hawksmoor, and is regarded as the finest example of truly Baroque architecture in Great Britain.

Sir John Vanbrugh (1664-1726) was an English architect and restoration comedy writer. He designed large houses for upper class people, including Blenheim Palace, one of the best examples of the Baroque style in the UK, and Castle Howard. His plays include The Relapse and the Provok’d Wife.

In the early 18th century Queen Anne’s gardener, Henry Wise, designed the grounds of the palace in the formal style of André Le Nôtre’s famed gardens for Vaux-le-Vicomte and Versailles in France. Little remains of Wise’s landscaping, however, because tastes changed in the mid-18th century, and Lancelot (Capability) Brown was asked to redesign the grounds in his pastoral style of informal or seemingly natural landscapes of woods, lawns, and waterways. Sir Winston Churchill was born at Blenheim Palace.
In 1987 the palace and its surrounding property were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The 2,100-acre (850-hectare) estate, which has remained in the Churchill family, is open to the public.