Ca' d'Zan — Attraction in Sarasota

Ca' d'Zan is a Venetian Gothic residence in Sarasota, Florida adjacent to the Sarasota Bay. The residence was the winter home of the American circus owner, developer and art collector John Ringling and his wife Mable Ringling.

The Ringlings were lovers of the Venetian aesthetic and chose the site overlooking Sarasota Bay for its vista, which reminded them of the lagoon of their favorite city. The name of the residence is Venetian for House of John. The Ringlings had been renting the residence of Mary Louise and Charles N. Thompson on their extensive Shell Beach parcel, and decided to purchase some of the land to build a permanent winter headquarters that would include a residence on the bay and a museum for their extensive art and artifact collection. An art school was planned to abut the museum, but it never was built. Mable's rose garden was the first completed portion of the complex. On April 18, 2012, the AIA's Florida Chapter placed Ca' d'Zan, the Residence of John and Mable Ringling on its list, Florida Architecture: 100 Years. 100 Places.

Architectural details of the house reflect influences ranging from the Venetian Doge's Palace, Ca' d'Oro and the Grunwald Hotel. Items collected by the couple during their international travels were featured in the residence.

The design of the residence was commissioned from New York architect Dwight James Baum in 1924 and it was built by the Sarasota developer Owen Burns. The work was completed in 1926, as the Florida boom collapsed and the bank failures that would lead to the crash of 1929 began. The original cost to build the home was $1.5 million.

In 1982 the residence was listed as a contributing property to the Caples'-Ringlings' Estates Historic District, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. Other contributing properties in the district include the Ellen and Ralph Caples residence, the John and Mable Ringling Museum, the Hester Ringling Lancaster Sandford residence and the Edith and Charles Ringling residence.

The 1998 film Great Expectations, directed by Alfonso Cuarón, had portions filmed at Ca' d'Zan, which served as Ms. Dinsmoor's house, Paradiso Perduto.

The residence was restored in 2002 under the direction of Bill Puig. Most details of the original construction and decoration were restored faithfully except some of the interior...

I visited the estate and paid for the first and second floor visit. Unfortunately you can only see the second floor with a tour guide. You are not given the option of seeing the second floor without a guide which is incredibly off putting. There was no reason why this should be done because there is nothing on the second floor that would merit the need for a tour guide. The second floor is much like the first - beautiful with plenty of do not touch signs which most people respect. The fee for seeing the first and second floor is $55 per person. The fee is quite steep given the many drawbacks. The first drawback is that because it is a guided tour it is approximately a hour long. The tour guide I had was incredibly and rather forcefully adamant that we were not allowed to move too far away from where she was (which made no sense given that everyone was provided a set of headphones so you could hear the guide). This is especially bad for those who like me like to explore at their own pace. Standing around sometimes for five minutes just listening to the guide drone on and on about very basic facts about the property was quite physically exhausting. Another drawback was that I didn’t really feel like I had the freedom the explore or take in the surroundings the way I like to. The biggest disappointment is that on second floor you are only shown three bedrooms. Everything else is closed off. For paying $55 per person for an hour of just standing around and being told to keep up and not feel like you can really explore this fee is completely unjustifiable. It is better to just see the first floor and the art museum and gardens. I’ve visited plenty of estates before and never before have I been told that the only way to see the property is to do a guided tour. It is quite annoying given how little I saw and how high the fee is to only see three rooms in the second floor. Apart from the main house the museum was lovely and the art pieces were amazing. But the experience of the day was soured by the high fee and the tour guide. I would have preferred seeing the first and second floor on my own at my own pace. A tour guide should always be optional and never forced in order to see more...

Very very disappointing! We drove 45 minutes to see Ca’ d’Zan, the crown jewel. The pricing and choices were complicated. We were four adults and two children. The last time I was there I went with my family, we walked to the house, purchased a ticket and waited a short time for the next tour to see this amazing house. I’m a reasonably educated person with a college degree but I must say it’s a challenge to figure out what program or set of things to see. All we wanted to see was the house. That’s not possible without first purchasing a general admission and then adding on another admission to the house. This got pricey for our group. The first floor of the house was available with a $10.00 per person “add on,” but we would have to wait until 3:00 pm. Not with kids. There were tours for an additional $40.00 per person but no availability that day because they were booked up. The clerk told us we could walk around outside the house and look in the windows. We ended up seeing a few interesting exhibits and having lunch at the museum. Beware the gratuity is added, but it’s only mentioned in the fine print after you get the bill. The campus is vast. It was 90 degrees outside and there seemed to be a shortage of trolleys so we had to walk in the heat, arriving soaked at the next building. Much of the exhibition area was closed in the art museum. The Belvedere of the house was closed would we have been lucky enough to get on a tour. None of the fountains or water features were operating. The art museum is free on Mondays and coincidentally we went on the right day for that. We still ended up paying $110.00 for four adults and two children while the art museum was free and we never got into the house or the glass museum. I was embarrassed to bring my out of town guests there and very sorry that we did not get to see the amazing and highly touted Ca’ d’Zan. We are just regular Museum goers. It was so disappointing that we did not get to see the main attraction, which is why we went there in the...