In 1751 Charles King of Borboni placed Luigi Vanvitelli, an architect, in charge of building a palace that could compete with the big residences of the Royal Europeans, choosing the plains near Caserta.
Vanvitelli accepted the challenge and presented a plan that was given enthusiastic approval by the king and the queen, Maria Amalia of Sassonia.
The works started in 1752 and continued, without any interruptions, until 1777.
During the last year of work, Luigi Vanvitelli died, the work
was finished by Vanvitelli's child: Charles. During the kingdom of Ferdinando IV the palace entertained the court. In spring and in summer it was place for parties and hunting sports. It became the favourite house of Ferdinando II. It was Royal possession up to 1921 and then it became the State's possession. During the second world war the palace was seriously damaged from bombing and then it was restored again.
In the Palace Hall you can find the inferior vestibule, from that point you can also admire the entrance of the 4 gardens which
open into the sight on the park. From the honor staircase you go up to the superior vestibule in front of the Palatina Chapel, there is a rectangular room which is inspired by the chapel of the Versailles Palace in France, with the barrel vault adorned with caissons, golden-roses and a semicircular apse.
At the 2 sides of the superior galleries there are sixteen columns. The real tribune is on the entrance wall, on the left of the Chapel there are the Real Apartments: the halberdiers saloon, the clocks saloon, and also the Alexander's saloon, which is situated in the center of the major face.
The New Apartment, so called because it was built in the ninth century, is composed of three rooms: the Mars's room, the Astrea's room and the Throne room: which the biggest. The King's Apartment was built in the ninth century too, and it shows traces of the French influence, especially in the bedrooms of Francesco II and Gioacchino Murat. Another jewel of the Palace is the Theater, projected by Vanvitelli in a second time on behalf of the king Ferdinando IV, who was fond of theater. The Theatre has an iron horse shape, with five orders of boxes and a luxurious real box, it constitutes an eighteenth century architecture masterpiece.
The marvelous park is the integral part of the majesty and the beauty of the Caserta's Palace.
It's a typical example of an Italian garden, built with large meadows, square flowerbeds, fantastic plays of water which gush from the numerous fountains. The water path starts from the Fountain of the Canalone, also called Dolphins' Fall because of the gushing which comes out from the throats of
three big dolphins. The Fountain of Eolo is constructed with a big basin in which the water falls from the top and where it has collected. In the Fountain of Cerere or Zampilliera the water gushes from two dolphins, four tritons and from the symbolic representations of two rivers; In the centre there is the statue of Cerere. From the Fountain of Venus and Adone the water comes down into a large basin through a series of twelve rapid. The path finishes with the Bain of Diana and Atteone, where there is a Water Fall of 78 meters. The park includes an English Garden constructed on behalf of Maria Carolina from Austria.
It is rich of exotic and rare plants and adorned with greenhouses, flowerbeds, groves and avenues that follow and emphasize the accidental conformation of the territory.
There is a small lake, the Basin of Venus and, according to the typical romantic taste, artificial ruins, with statues from the excavations of Pompei.