Belvedere Castle

A storybook castle on a rock with a view over the heart of the park, where the weather has been measured since 1919

Local name: Belvedere Castle, Central Park

Collection: New York · USA · Open in OpenStreetMap

The castle on Vista Rock above Turtle Pond · Christian David, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

The story

Before you is Belvedere Castle. It stands on Vista Rock, the second-highest natural point in Central Park. The castle was designed by the park’s co-designer Calvert Vaux and the architect Jacob Wrey Mould. The castle, its terraces and its pavilions together were called “the Belvedere,” which means “beautiful view” in Italian. It was all finished in 1872. It was built of Manhattan schist quarried right here in the park and trimmed with gray granite. The castle seems to grow out of the rock. At first it was simply a lookout tower, with no windows and no doors. It was meant both as a place to take in the whole landscape and as a lure that draws walkers toward it from afar. In 1919 the U.S. Weather Bureau set up a weather station here, adding windows and doors and building offices inside. In the 1960s the weathermen moved out, the castle fell into disrepair, and vandals damaged it. In 1983 the Central Park Conservancy restored the castle and opened a visitor center inside. Another major restoration was completed in 2019. Climb up to the terrace. To the north you can see Turtle Pond and the Great Lawn, to the south the wooded Ramble. The pond lies on the site of an old reservoir. And the weather is still measured here: an automated station stands just south of the castle, and the wind instruments sit on its tower.

Visiting

Central Park, mid-park at 79th Street. Open daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; terrace access ends at 4:55 p.m. Closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. There are no restrooms in the castle.