The Royal Palace and Park at Caserta was the main residence of the King of Naples. Building began in 1752 to plans drawn by Carlo Vanvitelli. It is the largest former royal residence in the world being 47,000 sq. metres in size, 138,000 sq metres of floor space over five storeys and it has 1200 rooms.
It is late baroque early neo classic in design and was built for King Carlos VII who gave up his throne to become King of Spain. His third son Ferdinand IV became king.
In 1997 it was granted UNESCO World Heritage status not only for its palace but for its park of 120 ha. with formal vistas of fountains, cascades, basins and hydraulic water management. The final point that stood this palace out from others was the large green space in front which had parterre hedges.
This is truly an amazing building, incredibly spacious, luxuriously and artistically decorated and in great condition. After only two rooms Kel said 'I am in absolute awe!'
We chose to do the park first and spent over four hours there. We walked right up the Via d'Acqua from the palace to the Vasca di Diana e Atteone which is at the foot of the cascade coming down the hill. This spectacular example of garden design, use of water in gardens and statuary stretches for 3 kilometres.
And so we had walked the three kms and reached the top of the Via d'Acqua. Spectacular!
On each side of the Via there is an avenue of holm oaks and a pathway through oak shrubs which we used for shade on part of the way back down as the temperature was nearing 30 degrees. When we reached the floral fountain we turned into the Bosco Vecchio (Old Woods) and criss crossed through the Renaissance woods, visiting the Castelluccia and the Peschiera.
We came out of the woods close by the rear of the palace where we had commenced our walk in the Parco Reale. It was well past lunch time and we needed to restore our energy levels before we tackled the Palace.
Look for part 2 - Visiting the Palazza Reale.
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