Royal Mausoleum

The mausoleum is a centrally planned building with an octagonal drum and polygonal roof. It is constructed of granite and Portland stone and the roof is covered in copper. The building is entered via a triple-arched portico, its ceiling decorated with an early example of prefabricated mosaic imported from Venice. Inside, the magnificent central tomb is surmounted by the recumbent effigies of the Queen and Prince, the last works of the Queen’s favourite sculptor, Baron Carlo Marochetti, who died in 1867. The interior decoration is a lavish melange of structural and painted Italianate polychromy, with inlaid coloured marbles on the pavement and walls and painted decoration on the spandrels and dome. Almost all the sculptural and painted decoration was carried out by Italian or German artists working in the style of Raphael, the painter Albert most admired.

Architect(s) Ludwig Gruner; construction supervised by A J Humbert

Listing Grade I (England and Wales)

Year Created 1862

History In December 1861, within days of the death of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria had chosen a site for his mausoleum at Frogmore. The design was to echo that of the Prince’s father, Duke Ernest I, in Saxe-Coburg. Albert had helped to design this mausoleum, and the Queen wanted every aspect of the new building to reflect the taste of her dead husband. The designer, Ludwig Gruner, had been Albert’s artistic mentor. It was under his guidance that the Prince had worked so hard to promote Renaissance Italian art as a model for the decoration of the New Palace of Westminster, and this was the style now adopted for his mausoleum. The foundation stone of the mausoleum was laid in 1862; the Prince’s remains were placed in the tomb in 1868; and the interior decoration was finished in 1871. The Queen lived another thirty years before joining her husband in the mausoleum in 1901. Some alterations have been made to the interior; originally the dome was painted with stars against a blue background, but in 1909 this scheme was replaced by a more elaborate one designed by Ion Pace. At the same time Gruner’s patterned windows were removed and new ones introduced.

Condition Good

Sources BoE: Berks (1966), 293-5; J S Curl, The Victorian Celebration of Death (2000) 233-7; VCH: Berks 91972) 3, 4-5; Frogmore House and Royal Mausoleum (1999) 40-47.