Belvedere House is a historic townhouse located on

Great Denmark Street Great Denmark Street (also called Denmark Street Great) is a street in Dublin, Ireland. It leads to Mountjoy Square, is crossed by Temple Street/Hill Street, and is part of Gardiner Row. History The area was largely a semi-rural area until the ...

bookending

North Great George's Street North Great George's Street () is a street on the Northside of Dublin city first laid out in 1766 which connects Parnell Street with Great Denmark Street. It consists of opposing terraces of 4-storey over basement red-brick Georgian townhouses ...

in Dublin, Ireland. It was built by

George Rochfort, 2nd Earl of Belvedere George Augustus Rochfort, 2nd Earl of Belvedere (12 October 1738 – 13 May 1814) was an Anglo-Irish peer and politician. Early years George Augustus Rochfort was born on 12 October 1738, son of Robert Rochfort, 1st Earl of Belvedere and Hon. ...

between 1775 and 1786 at a cost of £24,000. The design and stucco of the interior ceilings was carried out by

Michael Stapleton Michael Stapleton (born Dublin, Ireland, in 1747, died 8 August 1801, in Dublin) is regarded as having been the most skilled stuccodore working in the neoclassical or "Adam" style that dominated Dublin interior decoration in the final decades of ...

, a leading

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...

dor and craftsman of his time. In 1841 it became a

Jesuit college The Jesuits (Society of Jesus) in the Catholic Church have founded and managed a number of educational institutions, including the notable secondary schools, colleges and universities listed here. Some of these universities are in the United Stat ...

which houses the school

Belvedere College Belvedere College S.J. (sometimes St Francis Xavier's College) is a voluntary secondary school for boys in Dublin, Ireland. The school has numerous alumni in the arts, politics, sports, science, and business. History Belvedere owes its origin ...

. It is allegedly haunted by the

ghost A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to rea ...

of Rochfort's mother, Mary Molesworth, 1st Lady of Belvedere, who died there. Belvedere House is located near the Garden of Remembrance and

James Joyce Centre The James Joyce Centre is a museum and cultural centre in Dublin, Ireland, dedicated to promoting an understanding of the life and works of James Joyce. It opened to the public in June 1996. The centre is situated in a restored 18th-century G ...

Building

The building is a detached symmetrical 5-bay, 4-storey over basement structure which was refaced in red brick in the 1950s. It has a rusticated portland stone facade to the raised basement level. The balustrade of the first floor level is also faced in portland stone while there is a granite parapet and frieze over the top floor.

References

;Bibliography * {{Castles in Dublin Houses in the Republic of Ireland Houses completed in 1775 Irish Jesuits Museums in Dublin (city)