Mentmore Towers

Mentmore Towers, historically known simply as "Mentmore", is a 19th-century English country house built between 1852 and 1854 for the Rothschild family in the village of Mentmore in Buckinghamshire. Sir Joseph Paxton and his son-in-law, George Henry Stokes, designed the building in the 19th-century revival of late 16th and early 17th-century Elizabethan and Jacobean styles called Jacobethan The house was designed for the banker and collector of fine art Baron Mayer de Rothschild as a country home, and as a display case for his collection of fine art. The mansion has been described as one of the greatest houses of the Victorian era.

Mentmore was the first of what were to become virtual Rothschild enclaves in the Vale of Aylesbury. Baron Mayer de Rothschild began purchasing land in the area in 1846. Later, other members of the family built houses at Tring in Hertfordshire, Ascott, Aston Clinton, Waddesdon and Halton.

Much of the parkland was sold in 1944, but Mentmore remained with family until 1977. At that point, unable to come to an arrangement with the nation to preserve the building and contents intact as a Heritage property, the contents were auctioned, and it was sold to the Maharishi Foundation. In 1999, it was sold to investor Simon Halabi, who planned to build additional hotel and conference facilities.

Mentmore Towers is a Grade I listed building, with its park and gardens listed Grade II*.

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