The name 'Casino' is the diminutive form of the 18th-century Italian word 'Casa' meaning 'House', thus 'Little House', and is not used in the modern sense of "gambling establishment". After his 9-year Grand Tour of Italy and Greece, Caulfield was taken with all things Italian, and decided to add a 'little house' to his estate, which he had already named after the town of Marino in Lazio.
Design
Widely regarded as the most important Neo-Classical building in Ireland, the Casino is actually quite small, measuring only fifty feet square to the outer columns. In plan, it takes the form of a Greek Cross with a pair of columns framing each projecting elevation. Seen from the outside, the building has the appearance of a single roomed structure, with a large panelled door on the north elevation and a single large window on each of the other elevations. This is all illusion, however, as it actually contains 16 rooms on three floors. Only two of the panels in the door open to allow entrance, and the panes of glass in the windows are subtly curved, disguising the partitioning which allows what looks like a single window to serve several separate rooms. Many other tricks are used throughout the construction to preserve the apparent simplicity of the design. Four of the columns which surround the building are hollow and, with a length of chain dangling in each, allow rainwater to drain down. The Roman funerary urns on the roof are used as chimneys. The interior, by Simon Vierpyl, includes a basement level with a kitchen and associated rooms, a main floor with reception rooms and a top storey with servants' rooms and a State Bedroom. One of the rooms includes the Blue Salon. It includes a wooden parquet floor, with the Star of David in the centre, stucco work on the ceiling and a white marble fireplace. It contains some very fine plasterwork ceilings and some elaborate hardwood parquet floors. Originally the Casino was linked to Marino House by a tunnel, although this has been blocked off due to building works in the area.
Gardens
The Casino is all that remains of the eighteenth-century garden demesne at Marino with the original Marino House demolished in the 1920s. Described by Charles T. Bowden in his Travel Guide of 1791 as a 'terrestrial paradise', the design of the landscape was inspired by Lord Charlemont's extensive Grand Tour.
History
The tunnel at the Casino was used as a shooting range by Irish revolutionaries including Michael Collins in the 1920s.
