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The Royal Palace of
CASERTA
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Caserta,
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Ventotene islands,
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Vesuvius,
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Do it yourself - Walking tourPlan of the park
- Margherita Fountain
- Fountain of the Dolphins
- Fountain of Aeolus
- Fountain of Ceres
- Fountain of Venus
- English Garden
- Fountain of Diana and Large Cascade
- Fishpond
Caserta Royal Palace The Royal Palace was begun in 1752
by Vanvitelli for the bourbon King Charles III, who dreamed
of another Versailles, and was completed in 1774.
The brick and stone palace is built on a great rectangular plan
about 249 M. long and 190 M. wide (272 x 207 yds ).
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The apartments are richly
decorated with gold, stucco and marble and contain empire
style furnishings and fine pavements.
The apartment of the bourbon king Ferdinand IV 1780. Include
a library of 10,000 volumes and an 18c Neapolitan crip
with more than 1200 figures carved upon it. |
The park has an area of some 100 ha. 250 acres and partly on
a hillside, long vista enclosed between thickets, dotted with
basins, fishponds and fountains which ends in monumental cascade.
The great cascade, whose waterfall over massive blocks of stone
from a height of 78 M - 256 ft.
| A must to see is the English garden created
in 1782 for Maria Carolina of Austria. Winding and picturesque,
rich in cypresses, cedars, palms, tropical plants and
artificial ruins, it is further embellished with a small
lake. |
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Entrance fee to the palace and gardens Lit 12.000. For more
information you can call directly to the Royal palace at 0823-277111
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We return to the entrance-nail of the
Royal Palace,from whence we pass directly into the Royal
Park.
It is one of the biggest parks ever to have been created
annexed to a courtly residence, measuring as it does some
three kilometres in length and covering an area of some
hundred hectares.
But the Park is not only big:
it is also one of the most beautiful in Europe and
can unquestionably sustain the comparison with that of
Versailles. |
Its wealth of vegetation (including exotic plants, such as camphor
trees), its abundance of waters, statues and prospects, make
it an unique complex of its kind. A comprehensive tour of the
Park would require several hours. It is therefore as well to
divide it into stages. Margherita fountain (1)
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On leaving the Royal Palace, we take
the central avenue, from which diverge numerous side paths
leading into pleasant areas of woodland.
Some 700 metres down this avenue, we come to a rotunda
at whose centre the little Margherita Fountain
is situated.
With its miniscule jet of water, it hardly prepares one
for the fountains that are to follow. It serves, however,
as a central point of convergence, since all the parts
of the park may be reached from this point. |
Fountain of Dolphins (2)
Continuing straight ahead, we then come
to the Bridge of Ercole which serves as an overpass
crossing over the road to the town of Ercole.
A short distance ahead we come to the Large Fishpond,
475 m. long and 27.25 m. wide, which has been stocked
with fish ever since its construction, since it served
as a useful reservoir for regularly replenishing the royal
kitchens with fish. |
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Skirting the fishpond, we come to the Fountain or Cascade
of the Dolphins, a monumental aquatic fountain, with three
enormous dolphins placed on top of the rocks, from whose mouths
huge jets of water gush into the fishpond below. Fountain
of Aoelous (3) Continuing In a straight line, we next come
to the Fountain of Aeolus, a not entirely exact name
to indicate a large pond (42.35 x 34.65 m.) into which a waterfall
cascades and whose water is channelled underground to the Fountain
of the Dolphins.
The fountain is embellished with characteristic outcrops of
rock on which numerous statues of the Winds are placed.
This fountain was never completed; in fact, it was supposed
to be culminated by a large sculptural group with Aeolus and
Juno on a triumphal car drawn by peacocks.
Of the 54 statues of Winds and Zephyrs that originally embellished
it, only 29 remain.
The semicircular portico extending on either side of the waterfall
is called the Grotto of the Winds.Fountain of Ceres (4)
From the Fountain of Aeolus we proceed,
again in-a straight line, until we come to a terrace with
a large rectangular pond (321.70 k 17.50 m.), in whose
upper part seven little waterfalls are formed.
This long stretch of water is dominated by the Fountain
of Ceres in which dolphins and tritons, nereids and
statues of the rivers Oreto and Simeto spout powerful
jets of water.
At its center is a large statue of Ceres who displays
a medallion with Trinacria (Sicily), while nymphs and
dragons sport round her and animate the scene. |
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Fountain of Venus (5)
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A little further uphill there is another
artificial pond with twelve little waterfalls. At its
head is the Fountain of Venus.
This large and elaborate group of marble statues placed
over rocks below which the water gushes forth, represents
the goddess Venus who is trying to dissuade Adonis from
going hunting and so prevent him from being killed by
wild boars. Accompanying statues of nymphs, dogs and cupids
surround this group. |
The large cascade and fountain of diana Actaeon (7) On leaving
the Fountain of Venus, we continue forwards until we come to
a broad stairway flanked by balustrades supporting 14 statues
of huntsmen and huntswomen.
At the top of this flight of steps is the 'Large Cascade:
an Impressive waterfall laid out on the hillside, whose huge
volume of water debouches into a basin adorned by the famous
group of Diana and Actaeon, the work of the sculptors Paolo
Persico, Pietro Solan and Angelo Brunelll.Actaeon,
who had dared to look as Diana while she bathed, has already
been transformed into a stag, and the hounds that will tear
him to pieces are about to launch themselves on him.
The second part of the group shows Diana, surrounded by Nymphs,
as she prepares to bathe; chronologically, therefore, it precedes
the first. The Caroline Aqueduct To the sides of the Cascade
are two roads which both lead to the grotto from which flows
the water brought there by the imposing Caroline Aqueduct.
This viaduct-borne aqueduct was specially built by Vanvitelll
to provide the Park with water.
Along its course the waters of the Sfizzo, Bronzo, Molinise,
Duca, Matarano and Cannignano springs are channelled into it.
The building of the aqueduct lasted nine years, and entailed
the digging of tunnels through mountains and the construction
of viaducts over valleys.
The most important of these latter is undoubtedly the so-called
Ponti delle Valli, which joins two mountains. It consists of
three superimposed orders of arches, 19 in the lower order,
28 in the middle and 43 in the upper: 90 arches in all.
The viaduct is 529 metres long, 55.80 metres high and .3.95
m. wide. It rests on enormous piers and is traversable.It was
Ferdinand IV who inaugurated the aqueduct on 7 May 1762.
When it was opened, the water took four hours to travel the
42 kilometres of the conduit, channeled through five mountains.
From this grotto magnificent views of the Park and of the Royal
Palace, and the town of Caserta, can be enjoyed. The English
garden (6) Turning our backs to the grotto, we find to the left
the entrance to the English Garden. Its laying out was begun
by Carlo Vanvitelli, son of Luigi, in 1782, on the orders
of Queen Maria Carolina of Austria.
At that time, the so-called landscape gardens developed in England
were much in vogue, as a reaction against the formal Italian-style
gardens, which had dominated landscape architecture for many
centuries.
An English gardener, John Andrew Graeffer,
was therefore commissioned to come to Caserta and lay out a
garden in the new style. In doing so, he gave wonderful proof
of his ingenuity and artistic taste. The garden is luxuriantly
planted with a wealth of indigenous and exotic flora, not least
the beautiful cedars of Lebanon.
It was in fact in this garden that the first camellia imported
from Japan was planted in 1880.
There are also large glasshouses, a little lake, a chalet, a
group of mock-ruins, the ruins of a miniature Roman temple and
a botanic garden.
In the little lake is a statue of Venus, showing the goddess,
as she is about to bathe in the waters The miniature castle
(9) On returning to the Margherita Fountain, turning our backs
to the fishponds and looking towards the Royal Palace, we now
take the avenue to the right until we come on the left to a
large pond called the Old Fishpond (8).
Measuring 270.50 m. long and 105.80 m. wide, it has a little
wooded artificial island at its centre.
Following the avenue which starts out from this pond, we enter
an area of woodland (the so-called Bosco Vecchio), striking
for its deep refreshing shade and mood of silence.
| This brings us to the Miniature Castle
(or Castelluccia as it is called in Italian). This is
a small octagonal building dating to 1769 in the form
of a castle provided with its own fortifications, defensive
outworks, drawbridge and moat. It served to complement
the military education of the royal princes with practical
exercises. But it was also used more innocently for games,
since children, whether princes or not, love to play and
those of royal lineage had few recreational. |
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