The Temple of the Four Winds Including Retaining Wall

The Temple of the Four Winds, including the retaining wall, is a Grade I listed garden house located at Castle Howard. It was constructed between 1724 and 1726 by Sir John Vanbrugh, featuring stone door-heads carved by Dan Harvey. The statues are possibly by J Nost. The internal plasterwork and scagliola were completed between 1737 and 1739 by Francesco Vassali. The structure is made of limestone ashlar and has a lead roof.

The temple has a central square cella with four porticos on a cruciform podium, which is surrounded to the north, west, and south by a retaining wall that includes steps to the west. The podium is accessed by a flight of eight steps, with lead statues flanking the east and west facades. The tetrastyle porticos have pediments in the Ionic style, featuring plain tympanums and urns at the corners. There is a half-glazed door within an architrave, which is elaborately carved and flanked by sash windows in shell niches. An Ionic cornice, topped with urns at the angles, adds to the design. The dome has an octagonal window topped by a lantern.

Inside, the niches above the doors contain busts of Vespasian, Faustina, Trajan, and Sabina. The floor is made of Portland stone inlaid with colored antique marble, and the columns and architraves are finished in black and gold scagliola. The retaining wall features two flights of shallow steps flanked by a balustrade. The wall is approximately three meters high, with a chamfered plinth and coping stones. Massive corner buttresses with tapering bases support five pulvinated courses, which are topped by a moulded cornice.