Hampton Court Aleinikov
• Hampton Court (Hampton Court) - The former country residence of the kings of England, situated on the River Thames in the London suburb of Richmond-upon-Thames. The palace was built in 1514, the all-powerful Cardinal Wolsey, who, feeling the cool royal favor, gave it as a gift to Henry VIII. The Cardinal continued to live in the palace until 1529, but since 1525 the construction work was in charge of the king. If Wolsey inspired layout of Italian Renaissance palazzo, the King brought a somber architecture elements of medieval architecture, and built a large hall to play real tennis (it is called the oldest tennis court in the world).
• Over the next half century Hampton Court remained the main country residence of British monarchs. King William III found palace did not meet modern tastes and Christopher Wren proposed to upgrade it in then fashionable baroque style. Large-scale restructuring of the palace was started in 1689, but five years later, when he was just redone the south facade, the king lost interest in the project. In 1702, he fell at Hampton Court from a horse, fell ill and died, and then re-planning of the residence was folded (some work continued until 1737)
• George II was the last king, who lived in the palace. By the beginning of XIX century, Hampton Court Palace was abandoned, however, in the era of romantic apartments were refurbished Henry VIII and Queen Victoria opened the palace to attend the general public. In the royal chambers can be seen antiques and old paintings, the most significant of which are owned Mantegna, Raphael and Bruegel the Elder. Regular French park of the palace was laid for William III modeled Dutch Het Loo, his curious feature - a labyrinth area of 60 acres.
