Don't fail to visit the house and art collections of John Ringling , a multimillionaire who gave Sarasota a taste for fine arts that it's never lost. One of the owners of the fantastically successful Ringling Brothers Circus, which toured the US from the 1890s, Ringling acquired a fortune estimated at $200 million. Recognizing Sarasota's investment potential, he built the first causeway to the barrier islands and made this the winter base for his circus. His greatest gift to the town, however, was a Venetian Gothic mansion and an incredible collection of European Baroque paintings, displayed in a purpose-built museum beside the house.

The Ringling Museum Complex , which includes the mansion (daily 10am-5.30pm; $9, admission to the art galleries free on Sat), is at 5401 Bay Shore Rd, three miles north of downtown beside US-41. Begin your exploration by walking through the gardens to the former winter residence of John and Mable Ringling, Ca' d'Zan ("House of John," in Venetian dialect), a gorgeous piece of work serenely situated beside the bay and a triumph of taste and proportion. On trips to Europe to scout for new circus talent, Ringling became obsessed with Baroque art and acquired more than five hundred Old Masters: a gathering now regarded as one of the finest collections of its kind in the US. To display the paintings, a spacious museum was built around a mock fifteenth-century Italian palazzo. As with Ca' d'Zan, the very concept seems absurdly pretentious but, like the house, it works: the architecture matches the art with great aplomb. Five enormous paintings by Rubens, commissioned in 1625, and the painter's subsequent Portrait of Archduke Ferdinand , are the highlights, though there's also a wealth of talent from Europe's leading schools of the mid-sixteenth to mid-eighteenth centuries. Free guided tours depart regu-larly from the entrance.

Ringling Museum Complex

• Ringling Museum Complex

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