Longleat

Longleat is an Elizabethan prodigy house near Warminster in Wiltshire, England, built for Sir John Thynne between 1568 and 1580 after fire destroyed the earlier Longleat Priory on the site. Robert Smythson served as principal architect, though Thynne himself directed much of the design, and the finished house is regarded as one of the finest examples of Elizabethan architecture in Britain. It stands within parkland later landscaped by Capability Brown and remains the seat of the Marquesses of Bath. In 1949 Longleat became the first stately home in England to open to the public on a commercial basis, and its grounds now also hold Longleat Safari Park, the first safari park outside Africa.