BORGO REALE DI SAN LEUCIO E REGGIA DI CASERTA

 Borgo Reale of San Leucio
San Leucio is a fraction of the municipality of Caserta known for both historical and artistic reasons, located 3.5 km northwest of the city. The royal site, together with the Royal Palace of Caserta, has been recognized as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The Monumental Complex of the Belvedere of San Leucioil, born from the dream of King Ferdinand to give life to an autonomous community (called precisely Ferdinandopoli). King Charles of Bourbon, advised by the minister Bernardo Tanucci, thought of training the local youths by sending them to France to learn the art of weaving, and then work in the royal establishments. It was established in 1778, designed by the architect Francesco Collecini, a community known as Real Colonia di San Leucio, based on a special statute of 1789 that established laws and rules valid only for this community. The local craftsmen were immediately joined by French, Genoese, Piedmontese and Messina artisans who settled in San Leucio recalled by the many benefits that the workers of the silk factory used. The workers in the silk factory were in fact given a house inside the colony, and moreover, free training was also provided for family members and here the king set up the first compulsory school for women in Italy and men, which included professional disciplines, and there were 11 working hours, while in the rest of Europe there were 14. The houses were designed keeping in mind all the urban planning rules of the time, to ensure that they lasted over time (in fact they are still inhabited today) and from the beginning were equipped with running water and toilets. Women received a dowry from the king to marry a member of the colony, although available to all there was a common "charity", where everyone paid part of their earnings. There was no difference between individuals regardless of the work done, the man and the woman enjoyed total equality in a system that pivoted exclusively on meritocracy. Private property was abolished, assistance to the elderly and the sick was guaranteed, and the value of brotherhood was exalted.It was a model of justice and social fairness for the eighteenth-century nations inspired by a form of enlightened socialism. King Ferdinand IV of Bourbon was very fond of the colony and planned to enlarge it also due to the new industrial needs due to the introduction of the silk and the manufacture of veils, so to build a new city to call Ferdinandopoli conceived on a plant circular with a radial road system and a square in the center to make it a real seat, but failed in the neighborhoods annexed to the Belvedere implemented a code of particularly advanced social laws, inspired by the teaching of Gaetano Filangieri and transformed into laws by Bernardo Tanucci. The same Ferdinand IV signed in 1789 an extraordinary work that contained the founding principles of the new community di San Leucio: Origin of the population of S. Leucio and its progress until today with the laws corresponding to the good governance of it by Ferdinand IV, King of the Sicilies. This code, ordered by his wife Maria Carolina of Hapsburg-Lorraine, was published in the Royal Printing House of the Kingdom of Naples in 150 copies. Following the Restoration, the neo-city project was shelved, even if we continued to expand industries and buildings, including the Belvedere Palace. The utopian project of King Ferdinand ended with the unity of Italy when everything was incorporated into the state domain, but tradition and quality in the production of silk fabrics are still today. In the Monumental Complex the artistic expressions echo the life of the small village industrial. the testimonies of the presence of the royal family are almost one with those of the various activities of the workers and the silk masters, of school activities, of the houses of the teachers and of the director. Going through the Belvedere, you pass in front of the Trattoria district, which was the only building built for Ferdinandopoli: it housed visitors. Then you enter the "Royal Colony of Saint Leucio" through a gate surmounted by an arch surmounted by the royal coat of arms supported by two lions. On the right and on the left, there are two houses of the workers' quarters, San Carlo and San Ferdinando, which comprise thirty-seven housing units. The workers' quarters are connected to the Belvedere Palace by a double ramp that encloses the royal stables. The two ramps end on the Belvedere square, in front of the entrance to the church dedicated to San Ferdinando Re, obtained from the Belvedere festival hall in 1776. It runs along the building for fifty meters and arrives at the entrance to the Monumental Complex, from where you can see, at the top right, the long building of the spinning mill which is below the pewter, where silkworms were raised.In the royal apartment, of particular relevance, the ceiling frescoes of the dining room made by Fedele Fischetti with allegorical scenes of the loves of Bacchus and Ariadne as well as the bathroom of Maria Carolina, with, on the walls, encaustic drawings by Philipp Hackert representing allegorical figures.It is a must visit the silk factory, interesting path of industrial archeology, with tools for the production and processing of silk, a large room with fully functional wooden frames, exhibition of artifacts, the cuculter and the spinning mill. Of considerable interest, on the ground floor, are the two large twisting machines that were once powered by hydraulic machines, now powered by engines. The two torcitoi have been reconstructed on the ancient existing drawings. In the western part of the Casino Reale del Belvedere there are a series of Italian gardens placed on different floors and connected by special ladders. Inside there are fountains around which are placed fruit trees: pear, apple, lemon, peach, apricot, plum, pomegranate, as well as a citrus garden.

Royal Palace of Caserta
In 1751 King Charles of Bourbon commissioned the architect Luigi Vanvitelli to design a palace that could compete with the great residences of European sovereigns, choosing the plain near Caserta. Vanvitelli accepted the challenge and presented a project that gathered the enthusiastic approval of the king and queen, Maria Amalia of Saxony. The works began in 1752 and continued, with some interruptions, until 1774. In the last year, Luigi Vanvitelli died, the works were continued by his son Carlo who completed them without being able to respect exactly the paternal project. During the reign of Ferdinand IV, the palace housed the court in spring and summer and was often the scene of parties, receptions and hunting parties; it then became the favorite residence of Ferdinand II. It was part of the property of the crown until 1921, when it passed to the State. During the Second World War the palace was badly damaged by bombs and then restored. In the atrium at the entrance to the palace, the lower vestibule opens, from which one can admire the four courtyards opening the view of the park. From the grand staircase, go up to the upper vestibule and, opposite, to the Palatine Chapel. Inspired by the chapel of the Palace of Versailles, it is a rectangular room with a barrel vault decorated with coffered and gilded rosettes and a semicircular apse. On the two sides the upper galleries are made up of sixteen columns; on the entrance wall is the royal forum. To the left of the Chapel are the Royal Apartments: the hall of the halberdiers, the hall of the guards, the hall of Alexander, located in the middle of the main facade. The new apartment, so called because it was built in the nineteenth century, consists of three rooms: the hall of Mars, the hall of Astrea and the throne room, the largest of the building. The King's Apartment, also 19th century, is influenced by the decoration and furnishings of the French influence, especially in the bedrooms of Francesco II and Gioacchino Murat. The Old Apartment was already inhabited at the end of the 18th century by Ferdinando IV. The halls of representation are known as Stanze di Stagioni because they have frescoed ceilings with allegories of the seasons; the rooms of Queen Maria Carolina are elegantly decorated. The Palatina Library occupies three large rooms: commissioned by Maria Carolina, it has more than ten thousand volumes. In a large hall the Royal Nativity Scene was reconstructed with original figures, following the model of the ones that were set up every year in court, in homage to the ancient Neapolitan tradition of the Neapolitan crib and honored by the Bourbon sovereigns. Another jewel of the Palace is the Theater, designed by Vanvitelli at a later time by express wish of King Ferdinando IV, a great theater lover. Built in a horseshoe, with five tiers of boxes and a sumptuous royal box, it is a masterpiece of eighteenth-century theatrical architecture. The Royal Palace of Caserta is the masterpiece of Luigi Vanvitelli. His project included a large rectangular building, with identical façades facing one on the Piazza d'Armi, the other on the enormous garden and four internal courtyards. The facades, made of bricks and travertine, have a rusticated base, a double order of windows adorned partly of half columns and pilasters and a last floor surmounted by a balustrade on which there was a series of statues, then unrealized. The project also included two corner towers, on either side of the building and a central dome, also never built. The building has 1200 rooms, 34 staircases and 1970 windows. Together with the architecture of the building, Vanvitelli designed the wonderful park. The Pinacoteca of the Royal Palace of Caserta is divided into various sectors. A Quadreria of eight halls houses the portraits of the kings and queens of the Bourbon family, both in Italy and in France. One room is dedicated to the founder Carlo and contains a portrait of him, a portrait of his wife Maria Amalia and one of Filippo V. The room dedicated to Ferdinando IV and Maria Carolina contains numerous portraits of the sovereigns, including a juvenile queen painted by Raffaello Mengs. In a large elliptical room a painting by Giuseppe Cammarano depicts the Family of Francis I and another the genealogical tree of the dynasty. Many portraits of Frederick I, and his two wives, Maria Cristina di Savoia and Maria Teresa of Austria. A collection of paintings comes from the collections of the Farnese family and was acquired by Carlo III together with a group of ancient sculptures, including the gigantic statue of Hercules and the marble group depicting Alessandro Farnese crowned by Vittoria. Some Farnese paintings depict events of the life of Elisabetta Farnese; then there is a group of battles, from the Parma school. An important group of paintings depicting views of harbors of the Kingdom was commissioned by King Ferdinand to Philipp Hackert, an Austrian painter. A wing of the building houses the so-called Museo dell'Opera or Museo Vanvitelliano, which collects drawings, sketches, plants of vanvitellian works and especially wooden models of the palace, almost all made by the Ebanist Antonio Rosz. The wonderful park is an integral part of the majesty and beauty of the Royal Palace of Caserta. It is a typical example of Italian garden, built with vast lawns, square flowerbeds and above all a triumph of water games that gush from the numerous fountains. The path of water games starts from the Fontana del Canalone, also called Cascata dei Delfini because the jet flows from the gorges of three gigantic dolphins. The Fountain of Aeolus is made up of a large basin in which the water falling from above is collected. In the Fountain of Cerere or Zampilliera the water jets are launched by two dolphins, four tritons and the symbolic representation of two rivers; in the center is the statue of Ceres. From the Fountain of Venus and Adonis the water descends into a basin through a series of twelve rapids. The route ends with the Bath of Diana and Atteone, where it descends after a jump of 78 meters, the water of the Great Waterfall. The park also includes an English Garden, commissioned by Maria Carolina of Austria. It is rich in exotic and rare plants and embellished by greenhouses, flowerbeds, groves and avenues that follow and emphasize the rugged conformation of the territory. There are a small lake, the Bath of Venus and, according to the typical romantic taste, artificial ruins and fake ruins, with statues from the excavations of Pompeii.