Built in the 1920s, Hearst Castle is regarded as a hyperreal castle located between myth and monument, kitsch and curiosity. Nina Lucia Groß offers a first in-depth art-historical assessment of the ensemble, placing it in the context of Californian modernism. Architecture, interior design, collection and landscaped grounds are examined as an assemblage of mobilized objects, images and styles. Based on intensive source research, the study reconstructs Julia Morgan's and William Randolph Hearst's collaborative practice, reading the estate as a project of cultural transfer. Historical analysis and an examination of the castle's continuing role in popular culture and tourism intertwine and reveal Hearst Castle as a built setting as well as a dynamic space of the collective imagination.

• Hearst Castle and Californian modernism
• Re-evaluation of Hearst Castle as an architectural assemblage
• Innovative links between research into architecture, collection and cultural transfer