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One of the most sumptuous royal
palaces in Europe. You are able to
visit the royal apartments and the
great park of the most important
dynasty of the southern part of
Italy: The Borbouns. The
construction of the palace was begun
in 1752 for Charles King of Naples,
who worked closely with his
architect Luigi Vanvitelli.
When Charles saw Vanvitelli's
grandly-scaled model for Caserta it
filled him with emotion "fit to tear
his heart from his breast". In the
end, he never slept a night at the
Reggia, as he resigned from the
throne in 1759 to become King of
Spain, and the project was carried
to completion for his third son and
successor, Ferdinand IV of Naples.
The reasons for building the Palace
were to have a new magnificent
administrative capital of the
Kingdom in Caserta and to protect
the court from possible attacks from
the sea. The King also decided to
build a theatre, a large library,
and a university. The Palace might
have been a splendid place for court
ceremonies, too.
It was built on the idea of
Versailles outside Paris, but has
still the original furniture,
tapestry, floors, frescoes
decoration and a magnificent garden:
3 Km of fountains with sculptures
run in the middle of it, for the
most sensational dive into a
glorious past, that we can still
enjoy today. |
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