Explore the largest royal palace in the world, conveniently located in the suburbs of Naples, Italy.
It was a rainy December Day when I visited the Royal Palace of Caserta, probably not the best time to visit, but I was on a mission. I had tried once before to visit but failed due to weather and illness and this time it was going to happen. Weather be damned.
Caserta is easily reached by commuter train from central Naples and the palace is right in front of the train station. You don’t even need a map to get there.
The Royal Palace of Caserta.
Why a palace out here, far away from the shore? Charles VII of Naples (a.k.a. Charles III of Spain) wanted a grand palace he could escape to like Versailles. Caserta is close enough to Naples to easily escape to and still be close on hand to run things. It was also safe from sea and Neapolitan attack, unlike his palace in Naples. He started construction in 1752 and never had a chance to sleep a night in his new palace. The palace wasn’t even completed by his successor, Ferdinand IV of Naples.
A front gate big enough for a carriage to pass through.
The whole model for Caserta was Versailles but bigger. The layout is much different, more Italian/Spanish than French. Caserta has four interior courts and wings. It’s basically four giant boxes joined together to form a bigger box. Google maps to the rescue. Architecture is sometimes really hard to explain.
Google Maps The Palace of Caserta and part of its gardens. The gardens stretch a bit further north still.
Much of the first floor was this cavernous passageway connecting the courtyards, with a gate leading out to gardens out back.
One of the four interior courts. Even these were gigantic.
The palace has 5 floors and 1,200 rooms. This includes two dozen state apartments, a large library, and a theater, more than 40 monumental rooms decorated with frescoes (Versailles only has 22). Caserta is the largest royal palace in the world by volume (70 million cubic ft). You can’t visit every room. What you can visit will take a while.
First you go up a very monumental staircase.
It’s very fancy. Excuse the lighting, it was monumentally pouring outside.
Visitors to the palace entered the palace through this octagonal shaped room that is at the very center of the palace. It has many doors. The chapel is straight ahead.
The very Baroque chapel. It’s bigger than some churches.
Visitors today pass through some “plainer” rooms before they get to the monumental rooms. These rooms have traveling art exhibits. They are wonderful.
The first monumental room that you enter is this one. I have no idea was it was used for I forgot to take a picture of the sign.
The Room of Astraea was used as the “waiting room for Career gentlemen, ambassadors, secretaries of State and other privileged persons.” This room, like many of the monumental rooms, were actually decorated by the Bonapartes or later occupiers of the palace, not the original builders.
The Sala del Trono was completed in 1845 for the 7th Italian Science Congress. That’s when scientists got all the bling.
This is an elevator installed in 1845 for Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies. Who could blame him, the palace had 5 floors.
The only bassinet suitable for a king, I guess.
Bedroom of Joachim Murat, who was King of Naples from 1808 to 1815 and married to Caroline Bonaparte, Napoleon’s sister. This room is used as an example of the Empire style and has a collection of their furniture.
Bathroom with running water. Fancy.
Bedroom of Francis II. The bedroom shows the Empire style. Francis II was the last monarch of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, which included southern Italy and Sicily.
There are a series of rooms that make up the library. This is the fanciest.
The garden was also inspired by Versailles and includes five amazing Baroque fountains. There are also wooded areas and botanical gardens. I didn’t explore those due to the rain, which began dumping once I started walking the mile or so back to the palace.
The back of the palace looks a lot like the front.
The water feature extends for about a mile past the palace. Get ready for a walk. (There is a bus, but it costs extra.)
The first fountain I came upon was this weird fish one. They are supposed to be dolphins. Apparently, no one in the 17-18th centuries knew what dolphins actually looked like because they always carved them like this. Terrifying.
Fountain of Aeolus. This is a very large one with many statues and little grottos. Good use of the landscape as there is a little rise in elevation behind the fountain.
A bit of a close-up here. This fountain was hard to photograph due to being enormous.
Next fountain, the Fountain of Ceres, includes a clock and two creepy dolphins (one not pictured).
The water feature is still going strong.
Almost to the end, the Fountain of Venus and Adonis.
Last fountain, the Fountain of Diana and Actaeon. I couldn’t get it into one photo. Here’s the left side.
And the right. There is a mossy waterfall between them. Very lovely. And then it down poured all the way back to the palace.
Overall, Caserta is no Versailles. While it is much bigger, Caserta does not have the flash that the Palace of Versailles has. Caserta had no Sun King. That doesn’t mean don’t visit. Caserta is an absolute bargain and gem all on its own. The monumental rooms that are open are fantastic. The art galleries are immense (I was not expecting that). There is a lot of wonderful art on those walls. Plus, there is that huge garden to explore. Fountains galore! Caserta is definitely worth a day trip from Naples.
Check out my next update where I explore Rome once again!
or
Explore more of the Naples area!
