a pano with a gargoyle (actually a grotesque - I didn't know there was such a thing) keeping watch. This one had a tail, the one on the other side did not. In all there are nine gargoyles/grotesques on the front of the house, with seven of them located along the Grand Staircase Tower. Not a single one of the countless stone figures on Biltmore’s façade is a functioning gargoyle. However, some of them are quite convincing at pretending to be gargoyles, with their open mouths and the extreme angles at which they stick out from the walls.