The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Is A Magical Place In Massachusetts That You Thought Only Existed In Your Dreams
By Melissa Mahoney|Published April 19, 2023
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Melissa Mahoney
Author
I'm an east coast girl living in a west coast world. I grew up in New England before moving to SoCal for several years. I then lived in NYC or a year before moving to AZ in 2009. I worked in the entertainment industry for many years of my adult life and have a deep love for photography, writing, and traveling around the U.S. as well as to far-flung locations around the world. Travel is my life and writing about it is a dream!
Some places only exist in dreams, and then there are those places that are so beautiful that you feel like you’re dreaming when standing right in front of them. That’s how it is at the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum in Boston. One visit and you’ll believe it’s quite a magical place in Massachusetts.
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is an art museum that houses a variety of paintings, sculptures, and tapestries from around the world.
While there's some incredible fine art here, the museum is best known for the art heist that happened in 1990 when 13 works of art were stolen in the middle of the night. Their whereabouts remain a mystery to this day.
While the exterior entrance of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is quite modern and beautiful in its own right, what lies beyond is like something from a dream.
After Isabella Stewart Gardner inherited a substantial amount of money in the 1890s, she and her husband decided to expand their art collection. And then their idea of building a museum became a reality.
Isabella had quite a bit of input into the design which is inspired by the Palazzo Barbaro in Venice, Italy. And no detail is spared in this courtyard.
While this museum houses some impressive works of art from around the world, most visitors spend their time admiring the courtyard, which is a work of art in itself.