Caserta

Caserta lies on the plain north of Naples, beneath the hills of Campania. A medieval settlement grew on the heights above the plain, but the town's most imposing landmark arose below: a royal palace and garden laid out for the Bourbon kings. Its great façades and long axis of gardens transformed the landscape into a setting for the court.

Charles of Bourbon commissioned Luigi Vanvitelli to design the palace, and construction began in 1752. The ambitious complex included a park, waterworks and the silk establishment of San Leucio. Thousands of workers laboured on the palace, while decoration of the royal apartments continued into the nineteenth century. Caserta expressed the king's ambition to build a residence worthy of the great courts of Europe.