THE PALACE OF CASERTA 
PLATES 123, 124, 125, 126 
HE famous palace of Caserta, some twenty-one miles to the north of Naples, 
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¬ 
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 
magnitude. The building was erected in 1752 for King Charles III., from the designs of 
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, 
and stable buildings. 
The gardens extend to the north, east 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 
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