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6 unusual facts about Grand Tour


Christopher Lieven

Lieven died suddenly on January 10, 1839 at Rome as he escorted the future Alexander II of Russia on his Grand Tour.

Giannantonio Moschini

His guidebook, which continued to be republished, serviced a growing industry of foreigners visiting Venice on their Grand Tour and competed with Antonio Quadri's (Otto giorni a Venezia, 1822) and Mutinelli's (Guida del forestiero per Venezia antica, 1842).

Ida Saxton McKinley

They did not begin courting until after she returned from a Grand Tour of Europe in 1869.

Jean Preudhomme

Preudhomme's portrait of Douglas, 8th Duke of Hamilton, on his Grand Tour with his Physician Dr John Moore and the latter's son John, with a view of Geneva in the distance, is in the collection of the National Museums of Scotland.

Louis Dutens

On his return to England the Duke of Northumberland procured him the living of Elsdon, in Northumberland, and made Dutens overseer and senior travel companion - in effect, tutor - to his younger son during his Grand Tour.

The Tour

The Grand Tour, a tour of Europe and the Holy Land conducted by British gentleman in the 18th and 19th century


1995 Vuelta a España

Jalabert won the three classification competitions – the general classification, the points classification and the mountains classification being only the third rider (after Eddy Merckx in the 1968 Giro d'Italia and the 1969 Tour de France, and Tony Rominger in the 1993 Vuelta a España) to win all three classifications in a Grand Tour.

Anna Maria of Hesse-Kassel

He had met Anna Maria during his Grand Tour and had been well received by Anna Maria's father and her uncle Louis IV.

Belgian National Time Trial Championships

In 2000 the Rik Verbrugghe was crowned champion, who holds the record for the fastest average speed in a time trial race in a Grand Tour, which he achieved by winning the 2001 Giro d'Italia prologue.

Charles Sackville, 2nd Duke of Dorset

After a second grand tour to continental Europe in 1737 and 1738, he returned to England in January 1739 and staged an opera, Angelico e Medoro, with music by Giovanni Battista Pescetti from a libretto by Metastasio at Covent Garden.

Ex pede Herculem

An actual foot of Heracles, though carved in marble, was purchased by the 4th Earl of Aberdeen as a young man on the Grand Tour.

Garendon Abbey

Sir Ambrose and his son William did little to the house; his grandson, another Ambrose Phillipps, an accomplished gentleman architect inspired by his Grand Tour of France and Italy, started to change the house and the former abbey estate.

Geoffrey Soupe

Soupe made his Grand Tour début at the 2012 Giro d'Italia, taking a third place finish during the race's first mass-start stage in Herning, Denmark; a result that Soupe stated that he was "sorry" for, after he was supposed to be leading out the team's main sprinter Arnaud Démare, until he was caught up in a final-corner crash.

George Frederick Charles, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth

From 1700 to 1704 he travelled to western Europe as part of a traditional educational journey (Grand Tour), and visited, among other countries, Denmark, France and Holland.

Hadrian's Villa

However, many were also excavated in the 18th century by antiquities dealers such as Piranesi and Gavin Hamilton to sell to Grand Tourists and antiquarians such as Charles Towneley, and so are in major antiquities collections elsewhere in Europe and North America.

Hendrik van der Borcht II

Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel, passing through Frankfurt, became his patron in 1636 when he was only 22, taking him along on a Grand Tour of Italy.

Henri-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière

His father, Gaspard-Pierre-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière, was a pioneer of early photography (the first man to photograph the Acropolis, in 1839) who made a series of daguerreotypes while on a Grand Tour through Greece, Egypt and the Holy Land.

Jacques Georges Deyverdun

He also acted as tutor to several English noblemen on the Grand Tour such as Philip Stanhope, 5th Earl of Chesterfield and Sir Richard Worsley, 7th Baronet.

John Dugmore of Swaffham

In 1820, Dugmore accompanied in the Grand Tour a son of Charles Keppel, perhaps George Thomas (1799-1891), later 6th Earl of Albermarle, Viscount of Bury and Baron of Ashford, who made a brilliant military career (started at Waterloo) as well as was a memorialist, a distinguished collector and a member of the English Society of Antiquaires.

John Evelyn's cabinet

The cabinet was made for the diarist John Evelyn (1620-1706) and is an early example of a piece of furniture commissioned by a British visitor making the 'Grand Tour' of Europe.

Leopold König

However both these wins were eclipsed in September 2013 when he claimed his team's maiden Grand Tour victory when winning the mountain stage to Alto Pena Blancas after catching climber Igor Antón in the final 500 metres.

Philip III, Count of Hanau-Münzenberg

They then made a Grand Tour to Antwerp, Mechelen, Lion, Brussels, Breda and Strasbourg and then to Buchsweiler (now: Bouxwiller in France), the "capital" of Hanau-Lichtenberg, where they visited their relatives.

Robert Struble, Jr.

For two years in the mid-1980s he was the resident historian at Sea Pines Abroad, a private prep school in Faistenau bei Salzburg, Austria, a job which he described as his “belated grand tour.”

The Pharaoh's Daughter

Interest in ancient Egypt was revived by archaeological and political events- the discovery in 1851 by Auguste Mariette of the Serapeum at Memphis and the digging of the Suez Canal in 1859- and by the reports of the educated élite returning from the Grand Tour.

Thomas Wilkes

Apparently he spent eight years in Continental Europe on the Grand Tour after 1564, before he became a probationer-fellow at All Souls College, Oxford in 1572, where he graduated B.A. in February 1573 (N.S.).


see also

Christoph Caspar von Blumenthal

He attended various universities including Leipzig and Helmstedt, before being sent on a grand tour under the supervision of his tutor, Burckhardt Niderstedt.

Letter game

Novels written using or inspired by this type of letter game include Sorcery and Cecelia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot, The Grand Tour or The Purloined Coronation Regalia, and The Mislaid Magician or Ten Years After, all three by Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer; Freedom and Necessity, by Steven Brust and Emma Bull; and the children's books P.S. Longer Letter Later and Snail Mail No More by Paula Danziger and Ann M. Martin.

Moy, County Tyrone

The formal rectangular market place, with lawns and horse-chestnut trees, was inspired by the square at Bosco Marengo in Lombardy, admired by the young earl during his grand tour of Europe.

Rein Taaramäe

On Stage 14 of the 2011 Vuelta a España Taaramae and breakaway companion David de la Fuente were the last two riders of a 17 man breakaway, but with 2 km to go de la Fuente dropped back to pace teammate Juan José Cobo up the climb allowing Taaramae to solo to his first ever Grand Tour stage win.

William Villiers, 2nd Earl of Jersey

In 1703 he went on a trip to Italy (Grand Tour) and he commissioned Massimiliano Soldani Benzi a bronze medal.