Belvedere Castle (also known as Fort Belvedere or Belvedere
Tower) was designed in 1865 by Calvert Vaux and JacobWrey Mould. It sits
on Vista Rock in Manhattan's Central Park next to Shakespeare's Garden"
and was built in 1869 as a lookout.
The Belvedere Tower later came to house the New York Meteorological
Observatory which was founded by Dr. Daniel Draper in 1868. Upon Dr. Draper's
retirement in 1912, the United States Weather Bureau took over the observatory.
After its restoration in 1982, while still housing weather
measuring devices, the tower once more became a lookout. In May 1996, the
Henry Luce Nature Observatory also moved in.
Left: view of Castle looking from the North
Fort Belvedere has been criticized for being modeled in the
Rococo style but being designed to look like a military fortress and today
stands as a nature observatory.
Above: view of the Castle looking at it from the East
Belvedere Castle
Mid-Central Park at 79th Street
(212) 772 - 0210
11:00 am - 4:00 pm
Wednesday - Monday
Above: View of the Castle looking at it from the South
Right: Partial map of Central Park taken from a park brochure to
show Castle's location
