An Old Fad, Now Modified

That’s a pretty view of Belvedere Castle in 1890, with the long exposure required by the film technology of that era capturing the flag fluttering in the wind. If you look closely (click on the picture to expand it) you can see that there are no windows or doors in the masonry openings, because this photo was taken during the 110-year period when the castle was a folly meant to resemble a ruin.

Follies have been around a long time – at least since the Romans – but reached faddish heights during the Victorian era. The linked Wikipedia article has a nice description of what makes a folly, and it’s worth looking at a few of the descriptors:

“They have no purpose other than as an ornament. Often they have some of the appearance of a building constructed for a particular purpose, such as a castle or tower, but this appearance is a sham. Equally, if they have a purpose, it may be disguised.” Belvedere was built with no purpose, but later became home to weather station and then a visitor’s center.

“They are purpose-built. Follies are deliberately built as ornaments.” In other words, keeping an old ruined building on your property doesn’t make it a folly, just fodder for restoration or demolition

“They are often eccentric in design or construction.” I believe a picturesque castle in Manhattan qualifies as eccentric.

“There is often an element of fakery in their construction. The canonical example of this is the sham ruin: a folly which pretends to be the remains of an old building but which was in fact constructed in that state.” Again, this is Belvedere to a T.

I think the reason this issue fascinates me is that we are restoring a fake ruin to prevent real ruin, while modifying the space inside (for the second time) to allow the fake ruin to serve a real purpose that is partially masked by the picturesque architecture. The fact that there’s now usable space inside the building makes it not a folly, which means it has somehow become real by being a fake fake. That’s a heavy philosophical burden for any building to carry.