Famous Chandeliers From Around The World

Elvis was so moved to bring a chandelier into his Graceland estate that he insisted on an impromptu late-night shopping spree at Memphis' Belvedere Lighting in 1974. While Elvis may have left the building, the breathtaking Italian cut glass chandelier now resides in the dining room.

The impressive wrought iron chandelier that hangs above the Grand Staircase in the Vanderbilt family's great Biltmore Estate requires 72 light bulbs.

The Winchester Mystery House in California, built by gun heiress Sarah Winchester to appease unhappy ghosts, contains an elegant, imported chandelier that originally contained 12 candles, but was refitted to hold the spirit-friendly number of 13.

The Blue Room, the White House's reception room, boasts a chandelier 79 feet by 36 feet, with 19-foot 10-inch ceilings. It takes one person two entire days to clean the monstrous chandelier, but as big as it is, the lighting fixture must also be removed every year to accommodate an even bigger Christmas tree.

Outside of private residences, however, one must either go to church or gamble at the card tables to find the largest chandelier. While the title for biggest chandelier isn't a clear winner, four of the world's top casinos and a Spanish mosque currently vie for the bragging rights. However, reports say a British shopping center under reconstruction will feature the largest chandelier after remodeling is completed by the beginning of 2007.

Pat Fillman, the owner of Horns a Plenty, made the world?s largest antler chandelier. He displayed the chandelier in early 2005 wowing all that saw it. The chandelier is 10 feet in diameter, 12 feet tall, and is fixed with sixty-seven light sources. With a final weight of over 850 pounds, he estimates that it took the antlers of nearly 600 dear and elk to make the chandelier.

Perhaps the most famous chandelier of all belongs, not in a house, a casino or a church, but in the theatre. Andrew Lloyd Webber's well-known chandelier crash scene from Phantom of the Opera strikes desperation in the hearts of lighting buffs everywhere.

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