Vizcaya Museum & Gardens in Miami

A brief history of Vizcaya Museum & Gardens

Businessman and socialite James Deering (1859–1925) built his fortune from his family’s agricultural machinery business. He was also an avid collector of antiques. He built his dream winter villa from 1914 and through the Roaring Twenties, costing him an estimated $26 million at that time. Today, the property is worth an estimated $9 billion.

Following Deering’s death, care of the estate was handed over to his family. However, due to high maintenance costs over the following decades and harsh bay weather conditions, his family began selling off parts of the surrounding land and gardens. The main property, still much in need of restoration, and about 50 acres remained.

The family eventually donated the property to the people of Miami. The Miami-Dade County acquired the villa and gardens in 1952 and it then became the Dade County Art Museum, due to the impressive arts and antiquities amassed by James Deering. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1994.

What are the highlights of Vizcaya Museum & Gardens?

On a tour inside the Vizcaya Museum, you’ll find opulent rooms, all lavishly decorated and with furnishings that hark back to stately European palaces. One not to be missed in particular is the Living Room. It features open-beam ceilings and chandeliers, an ornate fireplace, gilded wall frames, and the impressive wall-hung Renaissance piece: the ‘admiral carpet’ tapestry from the family collection of King Ferdinand of Spain.

Vizcaya’s rooms are far from monotonous. One offers a different surprise from the next thanks to the diverse range of antiquities within. A great example is the Asian-themed Kitchen and Breakfast Room on the second floor. Some of its rooms are also said to be haunted, such as the Music Room where instruments sound off on their own.

The Breakfast Room was used more often than the Dining Room since it’s more gorgeous, with a lavishly carved fireplace with chinoiserie overtones and 18^th-century French wall paintings. You’ll also find the various bedrooms on the same floor. Interestingly though, the Deering Bedroom is modest compared to all the other rooms inside the mansion.

Outside, there are beautifully manicured gardens to explore. These include a stylish greenhouse central courtyard and its loggias, which Marvel fans might recognise from a scene in Iron Man 3 (2013) – where Tony Stark tries to break into the Mandarin’s lair. There's also the Secret Garden, the Maze Garden, and the sculpture-filled Garden Mound.

Check out the ship-shaped Vizcaya Barge on the villa’s waterfront – it’s one of the estate’s iconic masonry structures. Aside from aesthetically framing the magnificent villa when seen from the channel, it also functions as a wave breaker, guarding the property against rough tides. Also waterside is the Tea House and Yacht Landing, offering impressive seascapes of Biscayne Bay.

Good to know about Vizcaya Museum & Gardens

You can go on a self-guided tour of the Vizcaya Museum & Gardens by renting an audio guide to learn about the many aspects of the mansion, its history, and its impressive art and antique collections in depth. Human guides are also available, providing 45-minute tours of the gardens and the first floor of the main house. Guided tours are available every hour daily, from 10.30 am onwards. The last session is at 2.30 pm.

Besides frequently serving as a film location for movies, the Vizcaya Museum & Gardens is also a very popular venue for pre-wedding photoshoots, as well as for weddings and other special, private, and state events. It was the venue where President Reagan hosted Pope John Paul II on his first visit to Miami back in 1987.