Fonthill Abbey

Fonthill Abbey—also known as Beckford's Folly—was a large Gothic Revival country house built between 1796 and 1813 at Fonthill Gifford in Wiltshire, England, at the direction of William Beckford and architect James Wyatt. It was built near the site of the Palladian house later known as Fonthill Splendens, which had been constructed by 1770 by Beckford's father William. This, in turn, had replaced the Elizabethan house that Beckford the Elder had purchased in 1744 and which had been destroyed by fire in 1755. The abbey's high tower collapsed several times, lastly in 1825 damaging the western wing, and the building was later almost completely demolished.