THE PALACE OF CASERTA 



PLATES 1 23, 1 24, 1 25, 1 26 



.^l| jU- M^'w xp „ 







-:^^-^^^ 



HE famous palace of Caserta, some twenty-one miles to the north of Naples, 



J 



is one of the largest palaces in Europe, and in its vastness and desolation 

 recalls the EscuriaL In its day it was Intended to be the noblest con- 



4 _ _ 



ception of a palace in Europe, and the garden scheme, intended to rival 

 Versailles, was by far the largest project carried out in the eighteenth 

 century ; but its builders seem to have imagined that mere size could 

 attain this object, and its rivalry with Versailles can only be as regards 



L 



magnitude. The building was erected in 1752 for King Charles III., from the designs of 



r 



Vanvitelli, who has left a large monograph upon his work. The style of the gardens is 

 entirely founded upon the late French school, though it lacks in many respects the genius of 



Le Notre. 



The palace consists of a vast quadrangle eight hundred feet long by six hundred broad, 

 divided into four great courts. Upon the south side is a vast oval courtyard, approached in the 

 centre by the great road from Naples ; the courtyard is enclosed by barracks for the guard, 



J 



and stable buildings. - 



The gardens extend to the north, cast and west sides of the palace ; they are arranged 

 upon a main axial line which, including the cascade, is two miles in extent. Upon the north 

 front of the palace is the grand terrace, overlooking the parterre, and on either side are smaller 

 flower gardens. At the present day the gardens are very poorly kept up, but an idea of their 

 former appearance may be gathered from Vanvitelli's original design, illustrated on Plate 123. 



The east front of the palace overlooks a flower garden, and beyond is a large riding space 

 reminiscent of the ancient ' gestatio.' The west front overlooks a similar flower parterre, and 

 beyond this a vast orangery. The 'principal feature of the north front was the grand parterre, 

 of which only the space it once occupied now remains ; it terminated in a huge semicircle of 

 ' boschi; and was designed with rococo box scrollwork in elaborate patterns. In the centre is 

 a large fountain with four smaller pools. The parterre is traversed by a broad walk leading 

 to the fountain of the royal court of Neptune, at the foot of the great cascade. The water for 

 this cascade is collected from Monte Taburno, and led by a winding aqueduct, twenty-one miles in 

 length, called the Ponte Maddaloni, through a tunnel, whence it falls some fifty feet into a 



( ^33) 



N N 



