In brief
- Season 4 of The Gilded Age begins on Sunday 1 November 2026 at 9 pm New York time on HBO and HBO Max (eight episodes). In France, it is expected on HBO Max on Monday 2 November.
- HBO has only revealed a brief synopsis: the Russells pay the price for their rise, Agnes van Rhijn wants to reclaim her place.
- In Newport, The Breakers, Marble House, The Elms, Rosecliff, Chateau-sur-Mer, Kingscote and Hunter House served as settings.
- Near New York, Lyndhurst in Tarrytown and Glenview in Yonkers hosted the Fanes and Mrs. Astor.
- Visiting The Breakers costs 32 dollars per adult, 45 dollars with a second mansion (prices as at 11 October 2026).
Julian Fellowes, creator of Downton Abbey, found in Newport what no studio could craft: gilded ballrooms and marble dining rooms built for the Vanderbilts. Ahead of the return of The Gilded Age, here are the real-life homes behind the Russells and the van Rhijns, their jewellers, their couturiers, and the ticket prices to visit them.
What HBO announced for season 4
HBO set the date on 25 August 2026: the fourth season begins on Sunday 1 November at 9 pm New York time on HBO and HBO Max, with eight episodes, like the previous season, broadcast at a rate of one per week. In France, HBO Max made season 3 available on Monday 23 June 2025, the day after its American broadcast: season 4 is expected there on Monday 2 November.
The official synopsis is just four sentences long. Bertha Russell has changed high society, but at a cost her family must now bear. Agnes van Rhijn seizes an opportunity to reclaim her standing, Marian charts her own course and Peggy seeks acceptance from her future in-laws. HBO concludes: in this new era, you had better be careful what you wish for. Carrie Coon, Christine Baranski, Cynthia Nixon and Morgan Spector return, joined by Jim Gaffigan and Elizabeth Marvel. In April 2026, the Rhode Island Film & TV Office announced the return of filming to Newport, without naming the properties.
The Breakers, the Vanderbilts’ summer palace
Grandson of Commodore Vanderbilt, Cornelius Vanderbilt II built The Breakers between 1893 and 1895, after the previous wooden house burned down. Richard Morris Hunt designed an Italianate palace with 70 rooms, including 48 bedrooms, 27 fireplaces and a 15-metre-high Great Hall. The Music Room was constructed in France by the maison Allard et fils, dismantled and then reassembled in Newport. Baccarat crystal chandeliers, platinum leaf walls: nothing was too grand.
On screen, the billiard room hosts a game between George Russell and Alderman Morris, and the Music Room becomes the Russells’ ballroom for the grand ball closing season 1. The Preservation Society of Newport County acquired the property in 1972.
Marble House, a birthday present in marble
His younger brother William K. Vanderbilt had paved the way: Marble House, built from 1888 to 1892 by Hunt on the model of the Petit Trianon, was presented to Alva for her 39th birthday. The press of the era valued the house at 11 million dollars, including 7 million for the marble alone. Alva used it to arrange the marriage of her daughter Consuelo to the Duke of Marlborough. Re-married and later widowed, she would gather women’s suffrage activists there, in a Chinese Tea House built in 1914.
The series turned Consuelo’s bedroom into George Russell’s, and the dining room into the setting for Bertha’s dinner for the Duke of Buckingham in season 2.
The Elms, Rosecliff and Chateau-sur-Mer on screen
Completed in 1901 for coal magnate Edward Julius Berwind, modelled on the Château d’Asnières, The Elms has played the Russells’ Newport home since season 2. Its kitchens also double as the kitchens for the New York Russells, and Mrs. Berwind’s bedroom becomes Gladys’s. Rosecliff, designed by Stanford White for mining heiress Theresa Fair Oelrichs and completed in 1902, houses Newport’s largest ballroom; its façade appears in season 1, transported to Manhattan via special effects. Chateau-sur-Mer, erected in 1852 for merchant William Shepard Wetmore, lends its exterior to Mrs. Astor’s summer home. Season 3 was filmed at The Elms, Marble House, Chateau-sur-Mer and The Breakers.
Near New York, at Jay Gould’s and Mrs. Astor’s
In Tarrytown, on the Hudson, the Gothic Revival mansion of Lyndhurst hosted filming in 2021 and 2022: its reception rooms play the Fanes’ house, its lawn Central Park. Its third owner, financier Jay Gould, partly inspired Julian Fellowes for the character of George Russell. In Yonkers, Glenview, an 1877 house at the Hudson River Museum, serves as Mrs. Astor’s home in the first three seasons.
Caroline Schermerhorn Astor was indeed real: she reigned over Ward McAllister’s “Four Hundred”. On 26 March 1883, Alva Vanderbilt challenged her with a fancy-dress ball of nearly 1,200 guests at her Fifth Avenue mansion. According to an anecdote that the Museum of the City of New York considers apocryphal, Mrs. Astor had to drop her calling card at Alva’s so that her daughter would be invited.
Worth gowns and Tiffany diamonds
That evening, Alice Vanderbilt, wife of Cornelius II, wore an “Electric Light” dress by Parisian maison Worth, in satin and velvet embellished with gold and silver thread: it is preserved today at the Museum of the City of New York. The series’ costume designer, Kasia Walicka Maimone, drew inspiration from fashion magazines, archives of Parisian houses and portraits by John Singer Sargent. For season 1, her team gathered over 40,000 period documents and presented more than 5,000 costumes, according to the Television Academy, which nominated her for an Emmy Award in 2024.
For jewellery, one address dominated New York. Tiffany & Co. recalls that the Goulds, Astors and Vanderbilts ordered silverware and jewels there. In 1878, Charles Lewis Tiffany bought a rough yellow diamond of 287.42 carats for 18,000 dollars, which was cut to 128.54 carats and 82 facets. The Tiffany Diamond was born; the Tiffany Setting ring followed in 1886. The pearl necklace crafted for Mrs. George Gould, daughter-in-law of Jay Gould, would be valued at over a million dollars. At Lyndhurst, Tiffany stained-glass windows still illuminate the picture gallery.
Visiting the mansions this autumn and winter
In October, The Breakers and Marble House are open from 9 am to 5 pm. Preservation Society adult prices recorded on 11 October 2026: 32 dollars for The Breakers, 45 dollars with a second house, 57 dollars with two, 25 dollars for another single house, free under 6 years old. Two guided tours at 25 dollars lead beneath The Breakers or to its third floor. Rosecliff closes after 1 November, Chateau-sur-Mer reopens on 21 November at weekends, and The Elms has been closed since 10 August for a new tour layout. On select evenings from 20 November to 27 December, Sparkling Lights illuminates the gardens of The Breakers, interior visit included, for 45 dollars.
At Lyndhurst, the classic mansion tour costs 26 dollars per adult; tours pause in November and resume from the Sunday following Thanksgiving through late December. Glenview is closed for restoration. From France, season 4 will be available to watch on HBO Max from Monday 2 November 2026.
