Ringling Museum

Whenever I told anyone I was going to spend time in Sarasota, they said I would love it and several people told me not to miss the Ringling Museum. I thought it would just be a museum about the circus, since Ringling Brothers & Barnum& Bailey circus was headquartered there for many years. I was so wrong. It is a twenty acre waterfront property, owned by John and Mabel Ringling that includes a fine art museum, to rival anything in Europe, their spacious mansion that was their home, two circus museums and a theater. All of it is set among banyon trees, ambling paths and a fabulous huge rose garden. We went three times. The first time was just to walk the grounds (for free) and get any overview of the place.

We went back a second time just to see the art museum. The Ringlings traveled extensively in Europe and bought a huge collection of the Old Masters, including van Dyke, Velazques, Titian, Ruben, and many others. He then built the museum to house his collection, building many of the rooms to specifically showcase certain paintings.

The third time we saw the two circus museums and toured the mansion, Ca'd'Zan, meaning "House of John" in Italian.

This is the mansion heading up to the front door. It has 56 rooms and is considered the last of the Guilded Age mansions built in America. It was built in 1925 and is full of treasures.

This is looking back on the mansion from the terrace which is on the water and made of different marbles set in interesting patterns. Note the stained glass windows, very subtle and in pastels. Most of it is the original glass.

Now we're on to the miniature circus. This was truly amazing. It took up an entire building and covers over 3,800 square feet. This is an overview from the second floor. It took Howard Tibals over 50 years to complete and he says it still is not finished. You can see the workrooms where pieces are still being made by hand. It is a replica of the Ringling Bros. & Barnum & Bailey Circus under tent. It includes not only the big top, menagerie and the sideshow tents, but also 55 railroad cars, 152 wagons, and 900 animals. Each tent and wagon is equipped exactly like the real circus. It even has 7,000 folding chairs in the big top that actually fold up. The attention to detail is astounding.

A peek inside a small part of the big top with the aerialists at work.

Part of the circus parade. I took sooooo many pictures, but I won't bore you with too many.

I loved the costume on this elephant.

Another part of the parade.

Inside the employees dining tent.

This was in the other circus museum building, that gave the history of the circus. Many wagons. part of the train, colorful posters, extravagant costumes, interactive exhibits, and much much more. Here I am practicing my bareback riding routine and not thinking too much about good posture. Should have sucked my tummy in. Think I can get a job?

The courtyard of the art museum (no pictures allowed inside).

The David statue at the end of the courtyard is one of the only two bronze sculptures made from the original marble David in Florence, Italy.

Part of the extensive grounds. The banyan trees send their roots from the tree down to the ground giving them a most unusual appearance.

Look closely at this picture and see the little angel statue that was surrounded by the banyan roots. "Help! Get me out of here."

The grounds include a breathtaking rose garden with over 1,200 rose plant of every imaginable variety. I thought this one was a beauty.

Statuary was everywhere. This little guy was safely away from those trees.

As I said before, I took tons of pictures, and only gave a snippet here. If you are ever in the Sarasota area, be sure to put this on your list of things to do. You won't be disappointed.