The Royal Palace of Caserta
The Royal Palace of Caserta
Of all the splendid works and constructions with which the Bourbons embellished and modernized the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, the crown jewel is undoubtedly the universally known and admired Royal Palace of Caserta, famously designed and largely built by the Dutch architect Ludwig Van Wittel, Italianized as Vanvitelli.
He was personally summoned to Naples by King Charles, who, as a worthy great-grandson of the Sun King, certainly wished to proceed with the construction of a new Royal Palace, a worthy “residence” for a Bourbon Sovereign and his Court. This was both because he desired to have a palace not in Naples but near Naples (obviously recalling Versailles in this as well), and above all because the new construction was intended, in his plans, to be the most beautiful and largest palace in the world after Versailles itself, in honor of the new Kingdom he had conquered and as further proof of his determination that this Kingdom be truly independent and sovereign.
Indeed, King Charles always personally followed the works over the years, together with the Queen, both becoming in effect the guiding inspirations for Vanvitelli, without ever overstepping the great architect’s initial design.
It was an excellent “union of minds”: this is confirmed by Vanvitelli himself, in his periodic letters to his brother, where he always expressed his joy at the attention the two Sovereigns gave to his work, and for the harmonious understanding that allowed them to proceed quickly and with great profit.
Indeed, after the Sovereigns’ departure for Madrid in 1759, things would never be the same again, and Vanvitelli would always regret the happy days of the Fifties, sometimes even bitterly: famous are his expressions of regret for the absence of the “Catholic King” whenever he completed a new part of the Palace (for example the splendid gardens); one day he said: “The building makes a fine effect, but what is it for? If the Catholic King were here it would be much, now it is nothing” [Cf. Il Palazzo Reale di Caserta, edited by G.M. JACOBITTI and A.M. ROMANO, Electa Napoli 1994, p. 8. We follow this work for our exposition. On another occasion he said that the Palace was taking on splendid proportions, but without King Charles it was like offering “Margaritas ad porcos”].
The situation became even more serious when Tanucci [“Malignant creature” Vanvitelli called him. Ibidem.] took definitive control of the Kingdom, considerably restricting the finances available to Vanvitelli; indeed, if in the Fifties up to 2,000 workers labored on the building, in the Sixties they decreased by half.
Despite this, he continued to work always with passion and commitment; moreover in 1766 Galiani arrived in Caserta, Secretary of the Neapolitan Embassy in Paris, who, seeing the works nearly completed, openly praised everything, and even declared the gardens more beautiful and fragrant than those of Versailles.
Needless to say, Vanvitelli was overjoyed, as he was now 65 years old and ill, and was already thinking of leaving to his son Carlo the direction of the work for its completion.
Then in 1767 Vesuvius would help him: after a violent eruption, the young King Ferdinand IV decided to move from Portici to Caserta, and thus the works resumed actively, until his death in 1773; his work would be carried on by his son, but in reality the Palace would undergo modifications until 1920.
The Palace
The Palace had been designed as a very large building with two identical façades, one facing the parade ground, the other the gardens. Of the initial design, the central dome and the statue of Charles on the pediment, at the center of the façade, were never realized.
For the first time, the central staircase, which leads to the royal apartments (today the entrance to these is occupied by the Higher School of Public Administration), was placed at the center of a building.
Overall, it has no fewer than 1,200 rooms! The gardens were completed after the King’s departure, and in 1762 water—coming from Maddaloni—arrived at the Palace via the Carolino Aqueduct.
It is certainly not possible here to provide a description of the Royal Palace and its gardens; moreover, it is one of the most famous and beloved architectural masterpieces in the world; we shall therefore limit ourselves, in addition to showing some images, to mentioning the most beautiful and important rooms.
From the upper vestibule one enters the Palatine Chapel, similar to that of Versailles (a bare gallery-style hall with a colonnade rising on a high stylobate), inaugurated at Midnight Mass on Christmas 1784, in the presence of the King and the entire Court.
The chapel is dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, whose image is painted in the apsidal curve.
We then recall the Rooms of the Seasons, small and highly decorated halls: in that of “spring” the King and Queen received their most intimate guests, and there are some splendid views of ports by Hackert.
While the King’s Apartment is furnished in a rigorous manner with German furniture, that of Queen Maria Carolina is rather frivolous and elegant.
Having crossed the Palatine Library, composed of three rooms in neoclassical style, one arrives at the Elliptical Hall, all painted in white, without decorations, intended for court entertainments; it currently houses the enchanting Bourbon nativity scene.
The Bourbons always favored the ancient Neapolitan nativity scene tradition, and every Christmas a large nativity scene was set up in the Palace, to which not only expert craftsmen contributed, but also the Court Princesses, making the shepherds’ clothes. The figurines were made partly in terracotta, heads hands and feet, while the core was in tow and wire.
Actual designs were created: the last was from 1844, and the current nativity scene at the Palace is inspired precisely by that design.
From the Elliptical Hall one enters the splendid Caserta Picture Gallery, recently arranged with portraits of the Sovereigns.
But even more important is the section dedicated to the splendid landscapes that Ferdinand IV commissioned from J.P. Hackert, the second true artist of the Royal Palace of Caserta.
Hackert, born in Prenzlau in 1737, arrived in Italy in 1768, remaining there forever; the meeting with King Ferdinand dates to 1782; the great painter recounts how he was amazed by the King’s competence and how he spoke about painting with intelligence and clarity.
The two understood each other immediately (what had happened on a grand scale thirty years earlier occurred on a smaller scale), and from this understanding were born the splendid canvases that are still admired in Caserta today.
Finally worth mentioning is the small and precious Court theater, on the western side of the Palace. The theater did not appear in the first design, and Vanvitelli built it at the express wish of King Charles in 1756, when works had already begun.
To conclude, the marvelous gardens, with their enchanting sculptures, for which only the eye can provide faithful reproduction.
And only a personal visit on site can convey the splendor of the Palace and the munificence of the Bourbons, creators of the two largest and most splendid palaces in the world.
