The Royal Mausoleum is a

mausoleum A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be consi ...

for

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...

and her husband Albert, Prince Consort. It is located on the

Frogmore Frogmore is an estate within the Home Park, adjoining Windsor Castle, in Berkshire, England. It comprises , of primarily private gardens managed by the Crown Estate. It is the location of Frogmore House, a royal retreat, and Frogmore Cottage. Th ...

estate within the

Home Park Home Park is a football stadium in Plymouth, England. The ground has been the home of Football League One club Plymouth Argyle since 1901.Windsor in

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Ber ...

, England. It was listed Grade I on the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, a ...

in October 1975. It was built between 1862 and 1871. Albert, who died in 1861, was interred in the mausoleum in 1871 following its completion. Victoria was interred on 4 February 1901 following her death in late January. Work commenced in March 1862. The dome was made by October and the building was consecrated in December 1862, although the decoration was not finished until August 1871.

History

Queen Victoria and her husband had long intended to construct a special final resting place for them both, instead of the two of them being buried in one of the traditional resting places of British royalty, such as

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...

St George's Chapel, Windsor St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in England is a castle chapel built in the late-medieval Perpendicular Gothic style. It is both a Royal Peculiar (a church under the direct jurisdiction of the monarch) and the Chapel of the Order of the Gart ...

. The mausoleum for the queen's mother was being constructed at Frogmore in 1861 when Albert died in December of the same year. Victoria chose the site of Albert's mausoleum on 18 December 1861, four days after her husband's death, and plans were drawn up by Ludwig Gruner and A. J. Humbert, who had previously designed the

Duchess of Kent's Mausoleum The Duchess of Kent's Mausoleum is a mausoleum for Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Duchess of Kent, the mother of Queen Victoria. It is situated in Frogmore Gardens in the Home Park, Windsor. It was listed Grade I on the National Heritage Li ...

. Excavation work started on the site of the mausoleum on 27 January 1862, the final plans having been approved by Victoria that day. Victoria had had previous meetings with Humbert and Gruner to finalise and approve their designs. The foundation stone was laid by Victoria on 15 March 1862. It had been intended by Victoria to lay the stone on the first anniversary of her mother the

Duchess of Kent Duchess of Kent is the principal courtesy title used by the wife of the Duke of Kent. There have been four titles referring to Kent since the 18th century. The current duchess is Katharine, the wife of Prince Edward. He inherited the dukedom o ...

's death, but it was laid the day before the anniversary as it occurred on a Sunday. Victoria was accompanied by many of her children and many members of staff in attendance to the royal household for the ceremony of laying the foundation stone. The total cost of the construction and decoration of the mausoleum was £200,000 (), and was entirely funded by Victoria and Edward, the Prince of Wales from their private funds.

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, '' The Buildings of England'' ( ...

's ''

Buildings of England The Pevsner Architectural Guides are a series of guide books to the architecture of Great Britain and Ireland. Begun in the 1940s by the art historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, the 46 volumes of the original Buildings of England series were published b ...

'' series describes the mausoleum as the "finest piece of Victorian funerary architecture in Britain". Though Victoria and Albert are the only interments in the chapel, the mausoleum also contains monuments to Princess Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse-Darmstadt (1843–1878), Victoria's second daughter, who died of

diphtheria Diphtheria is an infection caused by the bacterium ''Corynebacterium diphtheriae''. Most infections are asymptomatic or have a mild clinical course, but in some outbreaks more than 10% of those diagnosed with the disease may die. Signs and s ...

shortly after her youngest daughter May (1874–1878). In the centre of the chapel is a monument to

Edward, Duke of Kent Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, (Edward George Nicholas Paul Patrick; born 9 October 1935) is a member of the British royal family. Queen Elizabeth II and Edward were first cousins through their fathers, King George VI, and Prince George, Duke ...

, Victoria's father. He died in 1820 and is buried in St George's Chapel, Windsor. One of the sculptures is of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in Saxon dress, commissioned after Prince Albert's death and executed by

William Theed William Theed, also known as William Theed the younger (1804 – 9 September 1891), was a British sculptor, the son of the sculptor and painter William Theed the elder (1764–1817). Although versatile and eclectic in his works, he specialised ...

(1804–91). It was unveiled on 20 May 1867 in Windsor Castle, and was moved to the Royal Mausoleum in 1938. The plaster model, which was exhibited in 1868 at the

Royal Academy of Arts The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its purpo ...

, is on loan from the

Royal Collection The Royal Collection of the British royal family is the largest private art collection in the world. Spread among 13 occupied and historic List of British royal residences, royal residences in the United Kingdom, the collection is owned by King ...

to the

National Portrait Gallery, London The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is an art gallery in London housing a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. It was arguably the first national public gallery dedicated to portraits in the world when it ...

. Victoria wrote in her diary that the idea for it came from

Victoria, Princess Royal Victoria, Princess Royal (Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa; 21 November 1840 – 5 August 1901) was German Empress and Queen of Prussia as the wife of German Emperor Frederick III. She was the eldest child of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdo ...

(her eldest child), and that the inscription on the plinth is a quotation from ''

The Deserted Village ''The Deserted Village'' is a poem by Oliver Goldsmith published in 1770. It is a work of social commentary, and condemns rural depopulation and the pursuit of excessive wealth. The poem is written in heroic couplets, and describes the decline ...

'' by

Oliver Goldsmith Oliver Goldsmith (10 November 1728 – 4 April 1774) was an Anglo-Irish novelist, playwright, dramatist and poet, who is best known for his novel ''The Vicar of Wakefield'' (1766), his pastoral poem ''The Deserted Village'' (1770), and his pl ...

. The inscription on the plinth alludes to the poet's lament for the passing of the imagined village of 'Sweet Auburn'.

Design

Royal Mausoleum of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, Frogmore, Berkshire

It was built by the architect A. J. Humbert, based on designs by Professor Ludwig Gruner. The mausoleum is in the form of a

Greek cross The Christian cross, with or without a figure of Christ included, is the main religious symbol of Christianity. A cross with a figure of Christ affixed to it is termed a ''crucifix'' and the figure is often referred to as the ''corpus'' ( ...

, to a 70 ft diameter, with a central octagon of 70 ft height. It was designed in the

Romanesque style Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of medieval Europe characterized by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque style, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 11th century, this later ...

. The mausoleum is built from

Portland stone Portland stone is a limestone from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. The quarries are cut in beds of white-grey limestone separated by chert beds. It has been used extensively as a building s ...

and granite; Australian copper covers the roof. A

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

inscription in bronze above the door can be translated:

Antonio Salviati Antonio Salviati (18 March 1816 – 25 January 1890) was an Italian glass manufacturer and founder of the Salviati family firm. Biography A native of Vicenza, Salviati was a lawyer who became interested in glass work after participating in r ...

designed and created the elaborate mosaics in the porch of the mausoleum; at a quoted cost of £480. Salviati created mosaics of differing quality according to their proximity to the intended viewer; the low ceiling of the porch was not properly appreciated by Salviati's craftsmen in Venice, and were dissatisfied with the final result. The dissatisfaction with Salviati's work endangered his proposed designs for the future

Albert Memorial The Albert Memorial, directly north of the Royal Albert Hall in Kensington Gardens, London, was commissioned by Queen Victoria in memory of her beloved husband Prince Albert, who died in 1861. Designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott in the Gothic R ...

, and he offered to rectify the work at his own expense. The interior is richly decorated in the

High Renaissance In art history, the High Renaissance was a short period of the most exceptional artistic production in the Italian states, particularly Rome, capital of the Papal States, and in Florence, during the Italian Renaissance. Most art historians stat ...

style reminiscent of

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual ...

, an artist Albert described as "the greatest artist of all time". Gruner was responsible for the decoration of the interior. The walls of the interior are laid with Portuguese red marble, a gift from King Luis I of Portugal, a cousin of both Victoria and Albert, and are inlaid with other marbles from around the world, with a dado of Sienese marble. Three chapels in the mausoleum are decorated with painting depicting the

nativity of Jesus The nativity of Jesus, nativity of Christ, birth of Jesus or birth of Christ is described in the biblical gospels of Luke and Matthew. The two accounts agree that Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judaea, his mother Mary was engaged to a man na ...

in the South chapel, the

crucifixion of Jesus The crucifixion and death of Jesus occurred in 1st-century Judea, most likely in AD 30 or AD 33. It is described in the four canonical gospels, referred to in the New Testament epistles, attested to by other ancient sources, and consider ...

in the north chapel; the west chapel is decorated with the Jesus's resurrection. An altar was placed in the North chapel. Paintings of the four evangelists decorate the

spandrel A spandrel is a roughly triangular space, usually found in pairs, between the top of an arch and a rectangular frame; between the tops of two adjacent arches or one of the four spaces between a circle within a square. They are frequently fill ...

s of the central octagon. Statues of the four evangelists stand in the niches of the pendatives. Artists involved in the decoration of the interior included the German painters Julius Frank and Karl Pfänder, the Italian Nicola Consoni and the German sculptors Heinrich Baumer, Hermann Hultzsch, Gustav Kunz and Friedrich Rentsch. The painting on the entrance transept is the work of

, Queen Victoria's eldest daughter. Tomb of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert

The centrepiece of the mausoleum is the

sarcophagus A sarcophagus (plural sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a box-like funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word ''sarcophagus'' comes from the Greek ...

containing the remains of Victoria and Albert. The couple are each depicted in recumbent

effigies An effigy is an often life-size sculptural representation of a specific person, or a prototypical figure. The term is mostly used for the makeshift dummies used for symbolic punishment in political protests and for the figures burned in certai ...

in marble sculpted by the Italian sculptor

Carlo Marochetti Baron Pietro Carlo Giovanni Battista Marochetti (14 January 1805 – 29 December 1867) was an Italian-born French sculptor who worked in France, Italy and Britain. He completed many public sculptures, often in a neo-classical style, plus re ...

. The effigy of Albert was the last work completed before Marochetti's death. Albert is depicted in his

Field marshal Field marshal (or field-marshal, abbreviated as FM) is the most senior military rank, ordinarily senior to the general officer ranks. Usually, it is the highest rank in an army and as such few persons are appointed to it. It is considered as ...

uniform wearing his

Order of the Garter The Most Noble Order of the Garter is an order of chivalry founded by Edward III of England in 1348. It is the most senior order of knighthood in the British honours system, outranked in precedence only by the Victoria Cross and the George C ...

. The effigy of Victoria was completed at the same time, and kept in storage until her death. It was mined from the Cairngail quarry in Longside, Aberdeenshire. The block was the fourth block mined; the previous three having been rejected due to flaws. The block of granite measured 10 ft x 8 ft x 4 ft and weighed more than 33 tonnes, but weighed 18 tonnes after being fashioned into a sarcophagus. The lid for the sarcophagus weighed 4.5 to 5 tonnes. The colour of the granite has been variously described as dark grey or blue. The sarcophagus rests on a block of black Belgian marble which had been promised to the Royal family by

King Leopold I of Belgium * nl, Leopold Joris Christiaan Frederik * en, Leopold George Christian Frederick , image = NICAISE Leopold ANV.jpg , caption = Portrait by Nicaise de Keyser, 1856 , reign = 21 July 1831 – , predecessor = Erasme Loui ...

and given to the mausoleum by

King Leopold II * german: link=no, Leopold Ludwig Philipp Maria Viktor , house = Saxe-Coburg and Gotha , father = Leopold I of Belgium , mother = Louise of Orléans , birth_date = , birth_place = Brussels, Belgium , death_date = ...

following his father Leopold's death in 1865. Angels kneeling in prayer stand at each corner of the sarcophagus. The angels were sculpted in bronze by Marochetti and cast by the Parisian foundry of Ferdinand Barbedienne. The angels were removed for the interment ceremony of Victoria. The latter and wing windows of the Royal mausoleum were originally decorated with patterned glass and the armorial crests of the Saxe-Coburg family. Each window featured an angel playing a musical instrument. The stained glass was renewed under the direction of

Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria a ...

in the early 20th century, and the cupola was repainted at the same time.

Restoration

The building has been closed to the public since 2007, when it was found to be structurally unsound. Due to the marshy nature of the land, the foundations were generally waterlogged, and the lower elements of the building were disintegrating. It was reported in August 2011 that repairs might not be completed for a further ten years. In February 2018, the Royal Household announced it was undertaking repair work, expected to be finished by 2023. This was begun in June 2018, with the aims of creating a dry moat around the building and of replacing its roof, protecting it from the long-standing problem of water infiltration.

Depiction in art

In 1869, the architectural illustrator

Henry William Brewer Henry William Brewer (1836–1903) was a British illustrator, notable for his detailed city panoramas, held to be one of the most outstanding architectural draughtsmen of his day. Family and early life Brewer was born in Oxford on 7 August 1 ...

undertook a commission from

to complete a series of paintings of the Mausoleum. The Queen took a great interest in watching Brewer at work, and herself appears in some of these intensely personal pictures. The paintings are now held by the

Royal Collection Trust The Royal Collection of the British royal family is the largest private art collection in the world. Spread among 13 occupied and historic royal residences in the United Kingdom, the collection is owned by King Charles III and overseen by the ...

Notes

References

External links

*{{Official, https://www.royal.uk/royal-mausoleum-frogmore Buildings and structures completed in 1871 1871 establishments in England Grade I listed buildings in Berkshire Grade I listed monuments and memorials Mausoleums in England Frogmore