The Fusaro Lodge
The Fusaro Lodge
The Fusaro Lodge is another of the architectural delights built by Charles and Ferdinand.
In 1752 King Charles purchased Fusaro, creating an “octagonal casino” right in the middle of the lake, on a natural granite level. In 1782 Ferdinand IV then commissioned architect Carlo Vanvitelli, son of Luigi, to design and build the hunting lodge, the Royal Casino of Fusaro.
“Six ground-floor rooms” were built for the royal stables and as an “inn for guests who came there for leisure”; the ancient mouth of Torre Gaveta was restored, and above all, oyster farming was expanded, as the king was very fond of them (to the point that he enjoyed participating in the sale of fish and oysters from Fusaro).
Toward the shore of the lake “various buildings were constructed, one called Baraccone, which comprised a large shed supported by arches and pillars to shelter boats and fishing equipment, and another building called Cassone to keep ‘live fish for the royal family’; for sale.”
Thus what was once the guardian’s quarters became the “Royal Casino” at the center of Fusaro.
Only later was the wooden pier built, while the “Ostrichina,” the villa on the shore, designed by royal architect Antonio De Simone and inaugurated in 1825, also had ample space to allow the royal carriages to stop.
Many great events took place there with illustrious guests. For example, on May 15, 1819, King Ferdinand hosted a banquet at Fusaro in honor of Emperor Francis II of Austria.
But if from an architectural standpoint this monument is linked to the prestigious name of Carlo Vanvitelli, from a decorative perspective it recalls the name of one of the most illustrious landscape painters of the 18th century: Philipp Jacob Hackert.
The structure consists of two superimposed floors, though not identical. The lower one is larger due to two ambulatories, one facing north and the other south, both flanking the front arcades.
Between these two spaces and the central hall are two semicircular rooms used as a corridor on the north side and as a stairwell on the opposite south side. These areas were used as a kitchen, staff quarters, pantry, and later, offices and storage. Currently, since October 2001, the ambulatories have been transformed into a “gallery of illustrious guests.”
Entering these rooms, one can experience the incredible sensation of being suspended over the lake waters; moreover, one can read the biographies and connections of the prestigious figures who shaped European history for over two centuries and who were guests at the Royal Site of Fusaro. The entire Bourbon dynasty, Tsar Nicholas I of Russia, Prince Metternich, Emperor Francis I of Austria, Sir William Hamilton, Joseph II of Habsburg-Lorraine, and then Gioachino Rossini and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, to name just a few.
Vanvitelli and Hackert, through their creative genius, had done even more. The piano nobile featured a splendid floor whose background color was a refined pastel blue, with floral themes and multiform yellow decorations.
The vault was finely frescoed with themes pertaining to hunting, fishing, and nature in general. The walls, however, were covered with what Hackert himself, addressing J.W. Goethe, had defined as the finest work executed for the court of Naples: the cycle of the four seasons. The artist had conceived of alternating each season with the panorama that can be admired through the large windows. The paintings, in fact, at natural size and covering entire walls, presented a horizon line exactly coinciding with the natural one of the lake without any interruption. A complete fusion between his masterpieces and those that nature had generously distributed around the lake. A synthesis of all the places most beloved by Ferdinand IV.
Unfortunately, Hackert’s masterpieces disappeared during the Neapolitan Revolution in January 1799. The original floors were removed after World War II.
The least conspicuous but certainly most ingenious work is represented by the roof, supported by a complex system of beams and supports that have guaranteed great resistance against atmospheric agents, as well as considerable resilience to the volcanic nature of the Phlegraean Fields.
From the Casino one admires a panorama of exceptional beauty and, in particular, the sunset represents a unique spectacle that enraptured and continues to enrapture, with undiminished intensity, the powerful, artists, and common people alike.
On clear days it is of incomparable charm to see the image of the Casina reflected in the calm and transparent waters of the lake, as if it were a mirror, and also veritable colonies of fish that draw strange geometric figures while performing extraordinary evolutions among the rocks, or the rocchi, precisely those desired by King Ferdinand IV, stones piled in a sort of basin on which bundles with oysters were placed so they would not come into contact with the mud, scattered like so many craters around the islet.
The place has been defined many times as an enchanted place, an architectural jewel on silent and transparent water. Maurice Coste, sent by the French government precisely to study oyster farming at Fusaro, proclaimed it a miracle that should be “replicated in France.” A jewel that aroused the wonder of geniuses such as Mozart and Goethe.
