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Photo: Ɱ, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The mountain-top villa of Frederic Church, one of the most prominent Hudson River painters and one of the United States' most significant artists, is a beautiful Persian-influenced grand country house. From the hilltop home there are sweeping views of the Catskills, the Hudson River, and the Taconic Hills. Grounds are open year round for walking, hiking, cross-country skiing, and other activities. Various guided tours are offered, but even visiting when the interior of the villa is closed is well worth it.
Olana State Historic Site is a historic house museum and landscape in Greenport, New York, near the city of Hudson. The estate was home to Frederic Edwin Church (1826–1900), one of the major figures in the Hudson River School of landscape painting. The centerpiece of Olana is an eclectic villa which overlooks parkland and a working farm designed by the artist. The residence has a wide view of the Hudson River Valley, the Catskill Mountains and the Taconic Range. Church and his wife Isabel (1836–1899) named their estate after a fortress-treasure house in ancient Greater Persia, which also overlooked a river valley.
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