USA doesn't have any castles, we aren't really old enough as a country to have any of those. There are some forts here and there but these are all war oriented things. I suppose castles are as well but we don't really have any massive stone structures that exude opulence. There is one place in this country that is about as close as we are going to get to a castle and this place in in Ashville, North Carolina.
It is called the Biltmore Estate and it is truly a spectacle.
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There is nothing wrong with North Carolina, I quite like it here and don't have anything bad to say about it. We have the ocean, we have mountains, we have all 4 seasons and none of them are too harsh. There is plenty of nature and it is a pretty great place. It is still a little surprising to me that of all the places that exist in the United States that someone would decide to build such a magnificent structure here in this location.
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The interior is just as spectacular as the exterior and while I have no proof of this being true, I would say that this place is likely one of the most sought after tourism location in the entire state. Multiple movies have been filmed here such as Richie Rich (which was terrible) and Hannibal (which was excellent.)
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As it turns out only a few scenes were actually shot here in Hannibal and the rest was done at other locations. It is worth noting that the Biltmore Estate would be an absolutely terrible place for a person in a wheelchair to live and you can see this is the case when you spend almost all of your time here climbing up and down stairs.
Here's a little history about this place. It was constructed in the 1890's by a 26 year old with the surname Biltmore although the house was for the extremely wealthy Vanderbilt family, whose descendants still own it today but do not live in it. It took 6 years to build and it has 43 bathrooms. The entire compound sits on 8,000 acres of land and when the house was being built they actually built a 3 mile long railroad extension to accommodate the building of this one place. Over a thousand people were involved in the construction and because of the massive amount of bricks that were required they built their own brick kiln on site that was able to produce 30,000 bricks a day.
Despite the immense wealth of the family (obviously) new income tax laws and property taxes made the Biltmore estate a very expensive house to upkeep and for the most part, nobody lived there for many years and the last time someone lived there full time was in the 50's when one descendant lived only in a part of the house known as the "Bachelor Wing."
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I can understand why no one would want to live in this place. How can you be expected to remain happy when the 2nd floor of your wing only has 3 bathrooms and just a single sleeping porch?
The house hasn't been occupied by anyone since 1954 and it is part of a privately held company with a board of directors and tons of staff. The house is currently held by the descendants of the Vanderbilts inside of a company called The Biltmore Company. 1.4 million people visit this majestic estate annually and I don't remember how much it cost to get in but I would imagine it must be enough to turn a profit after the maintenance is paid for (and I am sure there is a LOT of that!)
The house is not for sale but some people have done some assessments and estimated that it is worth over $150 million. However, it is unlikely that anyone will ever purchase the estate as it is now a protected historical landmark and I presume this was done for both preservation and also so that The Biltmore Company can save money on land and property tax.
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One way to show off in the 1890s was to have a 70,000 gallon indoor swimming pool... because why not!
It is also worth noting that aside from the additions that were made for the sake of tourism, much of the building is considered to be functionally obsolete and living in this palace probably wouldn't be a nice as you think. I was visiting in the winter the last time I went and most of the house was friggin freezing because there is no heating in most of the house and for the most part there never was aside from fireplaces (there's quite a few chimneys!)
The house did have electricity though, which was a rarity in the 1800's but this was because George Vanderbilt was buddies with Thomas Edison. Electricity was dangerous AF back then and therefore the estate has 6 "firewalls" that were put in as a precaution.
The crazy thing about this lavish estate that while it is lovely, it is a real world example of a very rich kid (he was 26 when he built it) having very little idea about the consequences of his actions. It is believed the construction and maintenance of this place depleted a vast majority of the man's inheritance from his family.