Tourism
Of Alessandra Iannello – May 18, 2024
Music, dance, exhibitions but also cinema and yoga sessions at dawn: the Royal Palace of Caserta is preparing for a summer full of events. The culminating moment is July 18th with the performance of the Guardia di Finanza Band which celebrates in music the 250th anniversary of the foundation of the Corps
Charles of Bourbon looked to the royal residences of Vienna and Paris when, in 1750, he called Luigi Vanvitelli to design his palace. The new building was to be located in the fiefdom of Caserta, purchased by the Caetani family of Sermoneta, to establish the new administrative center of the kingdom, in a safe place away from the eruptions of Vesuvius and attacks by corsairs.
Vanvitelli designed a pharaonic work, a monumental structure of over 47 thousand square meters that rises five floors. For its construction, which began with the laying of the first stone on January 20, 1752, over 2 thousand men, including workers and slaves, were employed. To reiterate the wealth of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, all the materials used came from the lands ruled by the sovereign such as tuff from San Nicola la Strada, lime from San Leucio, gray marble from Mondragone, pozzolana from Bacoli and travertine from Bellona. The other regions reigned by Charles also wanted to make their contribution and so the white marble of Carrara and the iron of Follonica arrived from the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, of which the Bourbon was grand prince.
To connect the Royal Palace to the Royal Palace of Naples, a 15 kilometer long straight avenue was built. It is said that the court and servants of the Bourbons numbered so many people that when the king entered the Royal Palace in Naples the tail of the procession had not yet moved.
Today the Palace, a UNESCO heritage site since 1997, is experiencing a new golden era after fluctuating periods of decadence.
The museum itinerary includes a visit to the Royal Apartments which can be accessed by climbing the Royal Staircase made up of one hundred and sixteen steps in white Carrara marble and composed of a central ramp that ends on a landing, from which two other parallel ramps lead to the vestibule. superior. The most majestic room of the Royal Apartments is the Throne Room, used for the reception of prominent personalities of the time. The other nineteenth-century rooms such as the bedroom of Gioacchino Murat or the bedroom of Francesco II are also of great value. In the eighteenth century wing, the Seasons Rooms, Maria Carolina’s Boudoir with the Palatine Library, the Art Gallery and the Court Nativity Scene, a great passion of the royal family. The magnificence of the interior corresponds to the external magnificence of the Green Museum which extends for 123 hectares and is composed of the Royal Park and the Bosco Vecchio. The first, designed by Vanvitelli, is an Italian garden with vast lawns, flowerbeds and lush water features that follow one another along the central axis with large pools, fountains and waterfalls adorned with sculptural groups that create a great scenographic effect. impact.
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