Architecture

With Father Francolon incorporating all the features he liked into the Castle, a remarkable structure with nine separate styles of architecture emerged. From the medieval, crenellated battlements at each end of the Castle, to the beautiful Gothic front door, Miramont stands as a tribute to one man's dream.

Shingle-style Queen Anne, Romanesque, English Tudor, Flemish stepped gables, domestic Elizabethan, Venetian Ogee, Byzantine, Moorish, and half-timber Chateau are used randomly throughout the four stories. For example, the Grand Staircase has two sets of windows, each in a different architectural style.

With the building stair-stepping up the mountain, the front door is on the first level and the back door is on the fourth. All floors had at least one exit to level ground. Miramont is over 14,000 square feet, has over 40 rooms, including eight-sided rooms, a sixteen sided room, a solarium which was once a conservatory greenhouse, arched doors and windows, with rarely a room with four square corners.

At the time the Francolons lived here, there was an underground tunnel leading from Montcalme Sanitarium through which the Sisters of Mercy delivered meals, and potentially there were other tunnels and escape routes, as well as hidden compartments within fireplaces. This was an era of great unrest and revolution in France, from which the Francolons emigrated, and it is believed that he built his Colorado home with this in mind.