Regarded as one of Europe’s finest Neoclassical buildings

Casino Marino was designed by Sir William Chambers in 1775 as a pleasure home for James Caulfield, The 1st Earl of Charlemont. Casino means ‘small house’ in Italian, but this one, with its clever use of perspective, has 16 rooms many of which are finely decorated. Many of the rooms are finely decorated rooms and one is called The Zodiac Room. There is some clever engineering such as the chimneys disguised as urns and the columns filtering rainwater down inside them using metal chains which were a Chinese invention. The mosaic floors are made from different types of wood from rare trees found in Africa and South America some of which are extinct now. The Casino was also used by Michael Collins during the War of Independence as a hideout because of the secret tunnels that connect it to the nearby coast. This one’s a joy to visit.