Look inside Tovrea Castle
Peek inside what may be the toughest ticket in town: the odd, tiered structure near Sky Harbor.
Tickets to tour Tovrea Castle are hard to come by. Seriously, like “Dear Evan Hansen” hard. So what makes these tickets such a coveted item? We’ll tell you.
People around the Valley usually have one of two reactions to Tovrea Castle, a picturesque structure hiding in plain sight on the eastern edge of Phoenix right up against Loop 202.
The first reaction is: What is that? Those who know what Tovrea Castle is often ask: What do I have to do to get in there?
Tovrea Castle tour tickets are harder to get than a permit to hike to Havasupai Falls or a night at Phantom Ranch at the bottom of Grand Canyon. Tickets that went on sale July 1 for tours starting in January 2020 were snapped up in nine minutes.
The Tovrea Carraro Society, which maintains the structure and grounds, estimates that more than 70,000 people went online or called in hopes of nabbing the 4,000 tickets spread out over about 100 times and dates.
Tickets are in such demand that the Tovrea Carraro Society plans to implement a lottery system to distribute tickets. Details on that are still forthcoming.
So what is Tovrea Castle?
Tovrea Castle was built by Alessio Carraro, an Italian immigrant who got rich in the sheet-metal business in San Francisco before moving to Arizona in 1928. He planned to build a resort and housing development.
The building opened as a boutique hotel that Carraro thought would entice people to move here, said Tamera Zivic, president of the Tovrea Carraro Society.
“His idea was that people would come out, fall in love with the desert and want to build their own home here,” Zivic said.
Carraro finished the place in 1930, but his dreams of making it a resort didn’t pan out, due in large part to the Great Depression, not to mention the smells from a nearby meat processing plant. He sold the property in 1931 to cattleman Edward Tovrea.
Tovrea died not long after making the purchase, however. His widow Della lived there until she died in 1969, and Phoenix acquired the property in 1993.
Working with the Tovrea Carraro Society, the city opened the castle and its gardens to the public in the spring of 2012, and the tours have been a hot ticket since then.
What’s on the Tovrea Castle tour?
The tour takes you through the beautifully landscaped grounds where you’ll have incredible views of the Valley. From the elevated position of the house you can see the surrounding mountains, Sky Harbor Airport, the skyscrapers of downtown Phoenix and even less prominent sights such as the Hunt’s Tomb pyramid in Papago Park.
Once inside you can explore the first floor and basement. You’ll get a sense of what Della Tovrea’s life was like as you observe period details such as the carving of a dancing woman over the fireplace, and her clothing and furniture.
In the basement are quirky details such as pulled-plaster ceilings, the tunnels used to access the basement and even the passive air tube used to cool the structure before air conditioning.
Unfortunately, city code doesn’t allow visitors to tour the upper floors of the mansion.
Why such demand for tickets?
Curiosity about Tovrea Castle has grown over the years. The proximity of the structure to the freeway means thousands of cars pass by the unique building each day.
But only so many people can pass through the building, because of limited space and the fragility of the 90-yearold structure. About 10,000 tour tickets are issued each year.
In addition to tours open to the general public, groups of 12 or more can book tours of the property. However, even those special-request tours are limited and all of those slots are already booked through 2020.
The day Bon Jovi visited Tovrea Castle
In addition to thousands of members of the general public, prominent people such as celebrities and politicians have visited Tovrea Castle. Some of the most famous people to show up weren’t looking for a tour, however.
Several members of the rock band Bon Jovi (including Jon Bon Jovi himself ) showed up to do volunteer work at the castle after performing a concert here a few years ago. The rockers weren’t afraid to get their hands dirty.
“Apparently they like to do service projects in the cities they visit,” Zivic said. “We couldn’t tell anybody they were coming, so the staff wasn’t expecting them. They pulled weeds and pushed rocks just like everybody else. They didn’t act like rock stars.”