Inside Biltmore House

Step inside Biltmore house. The 250-room French Renaissance chateau is a true marvel. Its construction began in 1889 and was finished in 1895. The finished home contains over four acres of floor space, including 35 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, and 65 fireplaces.

Scroll down to learn more about featured rooms

Two-Story Library

The two-story library is a guest favorite. By his death in 1914, George had read 3,159 books, which means that between 1875 and 1914, he read an average of 81 books a year.

Winter Garden

The Winter Garden is the hub from which the rooms of the main floor radiate. It creates an “all weather” interior courtyard. Particularly in winter, the lush, subtropical plants provide a green, inviting refuge from the cold and sometimes snowy world beyond Biltmore House’s walls.

Breakfast Room

The breakfast room was used for intimate family meals and was intended for less formal dining. Around Christmas, the mantel is draped with lights, garland, and multiple strands of beads for a casual, almost bohemian-style feel.

large table set with flowers and glasses

Banquet Hall

Measuring 42 feet wide by 72 feet long, and boasting a 70-foot high ceiling, this room features three fireplaces and an organ gallery. Artist Karl Bitter carved murals into the fireplaces’ overmantel and the organ gallery.

Tyrolean Chimney Room

The focal point of the Tyrolean Chimney Room is the overmantel, constructed from an antique tile-stove known as a kachelöfen that George Vanderbilt most likely purchased in his travels through Europe.

Louis XV Room

The room takes its name from the French king Louis XV and is perhaps the true heart of Biltmore. It served as birthplace of George and Edith Vanderbilt’s only daughter, Cornelia, in 1900.