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Hampton Court Palace

It was originally built for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, a favourite of King Henry VIII, circa 1514; in 1529, as Wolsey fell from favour, the palace was passed to the King, who enlarged it.

The palace houses many works of art and furnishings from the Royal Collection, mainly dating from the two principal periods of the palace's construction, the early Tudor - Renaissance and late Stuart to early Georgian period. The single most important work is Mantegna's Triumphs of Caesar housed in the Lower Orangery. The exotic gardens are recreated from records from the time of William and Mary. There is also the well known maze, the historic real tennis court and the grape vine, claimed to be the largest in the world.