The Royal Palace of Portici
The Royal Palace of Portici
The other Royal Palace built by King Charles was the Palace of Portici. In 1737, during a storm, the royal couple had to land at Portici; Queen Maria Amalia was immediately enthusiastic about the place and the King conceived the idea of building a royal residence there, which later became the official Palace.
The works, begun in 1738, were first entrusted to Medrano, then to Antonio Canevari, and finally Vanvitelli and Fuga also intervened.
King Charles purchased the surrounding green areas for the park and also the villa of the Count of Palena and that of the Prince of Santobuono, which were then incorporated into the new construction.
In 1740 it was decided to expand the site toward the sea by purchasing the woods of the d’Aquino Caramanico, the Mascabruno palace, and that of the Prince of Elboeuf.
For a long time it was believed that the Palace had been conceived and built around the pre-existing villas purchased by King Charles; today, however, scholars, based on a careful reading of the ancient design proposals (which were not accepted by the Sovereign because they aimed at relocating the royal road), find the explanation for the particular construction of the Palace not so much in architectural motivations as rather in political and social ones: King Charles wanted to “experiment with a new form of palace that would embody outwardly the idea of ‘clement monarchy,’ that would allow the people to feel materially and physically closer to the sovereign” (Barbera).
Born as the summer residence of the Court, the Royal Palace became over time a royal residence and seat of the Herculaneum Museum, commissioned by King Charles to collect the objects brought to light at Herculaneum (Portici thus became one of the destinations of the Grand Tour).
When the works were completed in 1742, the Palace proved insufficient to accommodate the entire court, and so many aristocratic families, to stay close to the sovereigns, purchased or had villas built in the vicinity, creating that artistic heritage characteristic of the area, known as the “Vesuvian Villas.”
The Palace features a superb façade with wide terraces and balustrades and consists of a lower and an upper part, divided by a vast courtyard crossed by the ancient “royal road of the Calabrias,” currently Viale Università.
From the vestibule one accesses the first floor through a magnificent staircase along which are placed statues from Herculaneum; and mosaics from the excavations of the Vesuvian towns were also used for the floors of some rooms.
On the first floor are the Guards’ Hall and the Throne Room, which still preserve part of the original decorations; to be admired, then, a Louis XV cabinet and another Chinese one, also with flooring from Herculaneum.
Among the most precious creations, we recall the porcelain salon of Queen Maria Amalia, a splendid example of the perfection achieved by the Royal Porcelain Factory of Capodimonte: it is currently located at the Capodimonte Museum in Naples.
The splendid Baroque chapel also preserves two red marble columns which, used for the construction of the altar, come from the stage of the theater of Herculaneum.
As with the Palace of Caserta and Capodimonte, the park constitutes one of the marvels of the Palace: it is an English garden gently sloping toward the sea, characterized by long avenues: notable are the Fountain of the Sirens, an excavated statue depicting “Victory,” King Charles’s “Kiosk,” with a small table with mosaic, the Fountain of the Swans and the statue of “Flora,” also excavated; there is also an amphitheater with three tiers of steps.
Also interesting is the area for “the ball game,” or “game of fortifications,” intended to host an ancient sporting form, now disappeared, similar to Spanish pelota.
Beyond the garden extended the woods, created according to the typical attractions devoted to court amusements: the enclosure for the ball game, the fortified square for military exercises, the pheasantry, etc. In 1742 a zoo with exotic animals was established there, including an elephant given to King Charles by Sultan Mahmud, for which a pamphlet was also published, Dissertation on the Elephant, in 1766.
