The Royal Palace of Caserta is biggest royal residence in the world. It was the residence of the Bourbons and of the Murat Family. In 1997 the Palace was inserted in the list of World Heritage Sites of Unesco. The palace is a splendid realm that Carlo of the Borbouns wanted in 1734 and projected by the architect Luigi Vanvitelli. Other architects finished the residence as when the architect Luigi Vanvitelli died in 1773 the realm wan not ended. The residence is very rich in details and it is presents four yards. The realm of Caserta is the perfect fusion of two different royal residences: the Palace of Versailles and the Site of the Escurial in Spain. The most representative areas are the following: Sala degli Alabardieri, Sala delle Guardie del Corpo, Sala del Consiglio, the Palatine library, the Palatine chapel, the Court theatre and the huge English garden.
Sala degli Alabardieri at the Royal Palace of Caserta
The Sala degli Alabardieri is the first of the five anterooms that the visitor finds after the staircase, when s/he wants to reach the Royal Apartment.
The Sala degli Alabardieri was projected by the architect Luigi Vanvitelli but it was his son who completed it. “The weapons of the Bourbons supported by goodness” is the written in the majestic fresco that decorates the vault of this room. The artist Domenico Mondo made the fresco in 1789 and the draft of it is guarded at the Louvre Museum in Paris.
On the walls of the room we find plaster decorations representing trophies and weapons realized by two important Italian artists, Angelo Brunelli and Andrea Calì, from 1786 and 1789. In the higher part of the room the visitor sees eight feminine busts symbolizing arts, realized by the Italian artist Tommaso Bucciano. The furniture of the Sala degli Alabardieri is mainly Neapolitan furniture of the second half of the 18th century. In this room we find also the busts of the queen that reigned on Naples and Sicily during the centuries. This marvellous room is enlightened by bronze and glass chandeliers executed by Neapolitan artisans in 19th century. The pavement is made with a technique that resembled marble.
The English and Italian garden of the Royal Palace of Caserta
The Royal Palace of Caserta extends for 3 kilometres. In correspondance of the centre of the back façade there are two long boulevards. Between these two parallel boulevards there are fountains that link the Italian garden to the English garden. The fountains that link these two gardens are the Margherita fountain, the fountain of Dolphins, the Eolo fountains, the Cerere fountain, the Venus and Adonis fountain and the Diane and Atteone fountain. The Margherita fountain is at the end of the Italian garden and at the beginning of the English garden. The dolphin fountain represents a sea monster with the resemblance of a dolphin and it was made by Gaetano Salomone, a great sculptor of the time. The next one is Eolo’s fountain representing the god that provoked the fury of wind against Enea and the Trojans. Even this fountain is made by Gaetano Salomone that here worked with other artists as Brunelli, Violani, Persico and Solari. Accordingly to the original project the fountains had to be 54, but just 28 have been realized. By walking further we find Cerere fountain, always made by Salomone with Carrara marble. This fountain is made of seven little cascades and it is adorned by dolphins and tritons sparkling water. At the end of these fountains we find the majestic fountain of Venus and Adonis. Here we find Venus tring to convince Adonis not to go hunting, as she feared he could be killed by a wild boar. This marble fountain is adorned with nymphs, cupids, dogs and other figures. At the end of the park we find the Great Cascade that pours water in the basin where there is the sculptural group of Diane and Atteone. This group was realized by Paolo Persico, Tommaso Solari and Angelo Brunelli. The scene represents Diane that is about merging into the water encircled by nymphs. Just in that moment Atteone is transformed into a deer as he dared to see Diane naked. Atteone, accordingly to the legend, is made into a deer and it is tiered to pieces by dogs.
