If you are thinking of travelling to Campania, or you are already in this beautiful region, you have surely thought of spending a day at the Royal Palace of Caserta. This splendid residence of the Bourbons is one of the finest things to visit near Naples, a real jewel both for its art and for the incredible beauty of its gardens.
Why is that?
The building of the Royal Palace of Caserta is often compared to the Palace of Versailles. What not everyone knows is that, with its 1,200 rooms and its immense halls, it is considered the largest royal residence in the world by volume (over one million cubic metres) and has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1997.
If you have already visited the wonderful National Archaeological Museum of Naples or toured one of the most beautiful districts of Naples, I am more than sure that the Royal Palace of Caserta will be the perfect conclusion to your trip.
But what is its story? Why is it so important, and when is the best time to visit this masterpiece?
In this post I tell you the most interesting information to know before visiting the palace and losing yourself in its gardens. You will discover plenty of curiosities, a little of its history and why the Bourbon king decided to build his royal palace right in Caserta.
Would you like to know a little more?
Let’s begin!
The history of the Royal Palace of Caserta
Before I tell you what to see inside the Royal Palace of Caserta, I would like to tell you a little of its history. Don’t worry, nothing too long or boring, but useful for understanding why this palace was built.
First of all, you should know that the Royal Palace of Caserta was commissioned in 1752 by King Charles of Bourbon (the future Charles III of Spain). The idea was to create a palace in an area that was both very beautiful and far from the sea.
The reason was simple: strategically, the new palace had to be hard to attack.
That is why Caserta was chosen: lying further inland than Naples, it was less vulnerable to raids from the sea and therefore easier to defend.
But the king’s real purpose was another.
He wanted to create a structure that could rival the magnificence of the Palace of Versailles, where he could host nobles and delegates from all over the world to show the greatness of his kingdom.
Who was put in charge of the works?
The design of the Royal Palace of Caserta was entrusted to the architect Luigi Vanvitelli, who was also tasked with planning the surrounding urban area. The king had him build the Carolino Aqueduct specifically, to ensure enough water to feed the fountains of the park (today the aqueduct is a UNESCO site together with the palace and the San Leucio complex).
To all intents and purposes the Royal Palace of Caserta was meant to become a second capital of the Kingdom, linked to Naples by a great avenue over 20 km long, which sadly was only partly built.
Work officially began on 20 January 1752, with several interruptions (Vanvitelli died in 1773 and the works continued under his son Carlo), and was completed almost a century later, in 1845; the palace, however, was already inhabited from the 1780s.
Royal Palace of Caserta: what to see inside
The result of Vanvitelli’s work is a building of almost pharaonic dimensions: inside the Royal Palace of Caserta there are 1,200 rooms and as many as 1,742 windows, over a total surface of about 47,000 m². The palace is considered one of the greatest masterpieces of 18th-century Italian architecture and includes rooms with original furnishings in various 18th- and 19th-century styles.
Okay, but where to start?
Among the things to see inside the Royal Palace of Caserta I recommend starting with the tour of the royal apartments. The finest rooms are about thirty, each with its own unique decoration. The first is the Hall of the Halberdiers, the guards who ensured the security of the palace; from there you continue towards the bedrooms and private quarters of the Bourbons.
The feeling I had while visiting the apartments was one of absolute wonder: it felt like being in a place out of time, where attention to detail borders on perfection.
But what were all these rooms for?
You should know that, of the 1,200 rooms of the Royal Palace of Caserta, only about a hundred were meant for the royal family. The others were used to house troops, to accommodate delegates and officials from other kingdoms, and included the Palatine Chapel (inspired by the one at Versailles), the picture gallery and the Court Theatre, a little horseshoe-shaped jewel.
Finally there is the throne room, immense and sumptuous!
Royal Palace of Caserta: the garden
The real spectacle of this royal residence is found not only within its walls but also outside, in a park about 3 km long where you can stroll in total relaxation.
Among the things to see at the Royal Palace of Caserta, the Royal Park is the one that will stay with you most.
The walk is marked by a long central avenue, closed at the far end by the spectacular Great Waterfall, 78 metres high, which seems to tumble down the hillside. On either side of the avenue open groves and perspective effects designed to amaze the eye.
The gardens of the Royal Palace of Caserta are divided into an “Italian garden” and an “English garden”, and are simply sublime, as are the fountains you will meet along the way.
Which are the most beautiful?
My favourite is the Fountain of Ceres, entirely in Carrara marble, but the Fountain of the Dolphins, the Fountain of Aeolus and the Fountain of Venus and Adonis are also wonderful. At the top, at the foot of the Great Waterfall, stands the scenic Fountain of Diana and Actaeon (1786-1789), with its two marble groups telling the myth narrated by Ovid: the goddess, surprised while bathing, turns the hunter Actaeon into a stag.
Walking along the great avenue that leads to the waterfall, you will be able to admire them all up close.
And what is in the two gardens, the Italian and the English?
In the park there is also an artificial lake (the Peschiera Grande) that King Ferdinand IV used for his amusement, re-enacting small naval battles with model ships.
The English Garden, on the other hand, is characterised by an apparent natural disorder studied down to the smallest detail: it was commissioned by Queen Maria Carolina, on the advice of the British ambassador William Hamilton, and created by the botanist John Graefer. It is considered the first “informal” garden in Italy and hides a water-lily pond with some “fake ruins”, in the fashion of the time inspired by the excavations of Pompeii.
The view from every point of the slope, climbing towards the Great Waterfall, is simply beautiful: no photo can faithfully render the perfect play of perspective and the harmony of forms of the garden of the Royal Palace of Caserta.
Who lived in this royal palace?
Although Charles of Bourbon’s original intention was to make the Royal Palace of Caserta a second seat of the Kingdom of Naples, the palace was used above all as a summer residence of the Bourbon sovereigns or as a hunting estate.
The first to use it in this way was Ferdinand IV of Naples. To his wife Maria Carolina, on the other hand, we owe many of the finest decorations of the palace, as well as the picture gallery and the English Garden.
The palace lived through the upheavals of the Parthenopean Republic of 1799 and, with the arrival of Joachim Murat as king of Naples, was enriched with an entire apartment in Empire style.
With the defeat of Napoleon and the Congress of Vienna, it returned to being a Bourbon hunting residence. In 1860 it was annexed to the newly born Kingdom of Italy and, in 1919, King Victor Emmanuel III ceded it to the Italian State.
But the story of this palace holds a surprising and recent chapter too: during the Second World War the palace became the headquarters of the Allied forces and, in one of its halls, in April 1945, the surrender of the German forces in Italy was signed. And if it feels like you’ve seen it at the cinema before, you’re not wrong: the palace served as the royal palace of Naboo in two Star Wars films (The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones).
In short, the history of this palace is so intricate and full of twists that it makes it even more fascinating, don’t you think?
The best time to visit Caserta
The Royal Palace of Caserta is visited every year by over a million people. Not that many if you compare it to Versailles or the Louvre in Paris, but still a considerable number given its distance from Rome.
There is, in truth, no really “quiet” season: in summer it is invaded by tourists, while during the school year you risk running into numerous school groups on a trip.
So what should you do?
Don’t worry: although it is one of the most visited attractions in Italy, the estate is so large that you will rarely find the rooms so crowded that you can’t enjoy them.
My advice, if you can, is to avoid weekends and visit the Royal Palace of Caserta on a weekday. Remember that it is closed on Tuesdays.
Royal Palace of Caserta: tickets and practical information
As I was saying, because of the large number of visitors you risk spending quite some time in the queue before entering the palace. My advice is to arrive with your ticket already in hand: if you want to skip the queue and be guided through the apartments and the park, there is a handy tour with skip-the-line entry, leaving you more time to enjoy the gardens.
- Ticket: full price €19 (park + historic apartments; it includes the Palatine Chapel, the Court Theatre and the entire Royal Park with the English Garden), with reductions and free entry for under 18s. On the first Sunday of the month admission is free for everyone, but the crowds are huge.
- Hours: every day from 8:30 am to 7:30 pm, last admission one hour before closing; the English Garden closes a little earlier than the rest of the park. Closed on Tuesdays, as well as on 1 January and 25 December. Always check the current opening times on the official website before you go.
How much time do you need?
In general you need a couple of hours for the royal apartments and almost three hours for a full overview of the gardens. If you don’t feel like walking, or you’re short on time, inside the park you can rent bikes or ride in a horse-drawn carriage: I found it a really original way to imagine what life at the palace must have been like almost 300 years ago.
If you love grand palaces and historic residences, after Caserta I also recommend Hadrian’s Villa in Tivoli, the masterpiece villa of the emperor Hadrian, and the National Archaeological Museum of Naples to round off your trip to Campania.
And you, what appeals to you most about the Royal Palace of Caserta: the sumptuous royal apartments or the long waterfall that closes the park?
