Discover Kingston Lacy, an opulent family home built to resemble a Venetian Palace.

There’s plenty to see, from spectacular artworks to beautiful landscapes. Wander through the Japanese Garden to the Kitchen Garden, which is being restored to Victorian splendour. Or explore the vast 8,500 acres of estate, featuring Iron Age hill forts, colourful heathland, water meadows and the world’s oldest pedigree herd of Red Ruby Devon cattle.

Kingston Lacy has a dynamic history. Over centuries the Bankes family built, altered, embellished and rebuilt their house. Their wealth came from extensive estates and profitable marriages, including inherited wealth from Caribbean plantations supported by the Atlantic slave trade.

William John Bankes created the house we know today between 1834 and his death in 1855. Forced into exile for homosexuality, at that time punishable by death, he lived in Venice and remotely remodelled the house, creating lavishly decorated interiors such as the spectacular Spanish Room. Displaying remarkable paintings by renowned artists like Rubens, Van Dyck, Titian and Brueghel, the house is a miniature ‘national gallery’ for the South West, and includes Bankes’ collection of ancient Egyptian artefacts, the largest private collection in the UK.