Reggia Palace

November 1, 2013

(We've been here four months and finally took our first P-Day!  Wow!  That's a milestone.  It was really a matter of necessity because we needed to stay in Caserta for a day so President could do a scambi with two of the missionaries that night.  It was a pleasant experience.)

REGGIA di CASSERTA

A splendid palace, a gracious garden, and all the opulence you'd expect from a royal residence is found at the Palace of Caserta. It was built by King Charles when he took the throne of the Kingdom of Naples, wanting to establish a prestigious place that would be "fit for a Bourbon king". The magnificent mansion and gorgeous gardens were meant to rival the splendor of Versailles and act as a symbol of the new kingdom.

Charles enlisted the architect Luigi Vanvitelli to design the palazzo; the foundation stone was laid on January 20, 1752, on the king's 36th birthday. He personally oversaw the initial construction with exacting attention, but when the Spanish king died and Charles assumed the kingdom, he let the Caserta project lapse when he hurried off to Madrid. The death of Vinvitelli also stalled the construction until his son, Carlo, took over and completed it. It was completed in 1780, a sprawling residence and court of 1200 rooms with four interior courtyards, a chapel, a hunting lodge, a silk factory and a small, opulent theatre built to mimic the Teatro San Carlo in Naples. A grand, ramped staircase gives a stunning first impression when you enter the building, which boasts a Renaissance-style symmetry on the facade but with Baroque decor inside.

The palace and grounds are so impressive that they were named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Self-guided tours allow you to tour the home and see some of the gold and marble splashed rooms, including the Throne Room and the Royal Apartment, which consisted of 25 rooms. A library contains 10,000 volumes. But the highlight is the sprawling garden which stretches out behind the palace for three kilometers and comprises 250 acres (100 hectares). A line of reflecting pools are skirted by sculptures, culminating at a waterfall at the far end of the grounds. The formal gardens are meticulously landscapes, while forests abound at the borders. There are so many fountains that an aqueduct was built to feed them all. There are hidden corners, sculptures scattered about, and exotic plants to enjoy. An artificial lake was used to stage mock naval battles for the entertainment of the court.

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The Caserta Palace has been used as a filming location in a number of movie productions. In 1997 it served as a filming location for Star Wars when it was used as the setting for Queen Amidala's Royal Palace on Naboo in the 1999 film Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. It featured again in the 2002 filmStar Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones as Queen Jamilla's palace.

The same room was also used in Mission: Impossible III as Vatican City. In fact, the square where the Lamborghini is blown up is actually the square inside the Palace.

The main staircase is also used in Angels & Demons as the Vatican's staircase. The mezzo soprano Cecilia Bartoli used the palace as primary location for the film L'art des castrats that accompanies her album Sacrificium, dedicated to the music written for the castrato singers of the baroque period.

The Palace featured in Beautiful But Dangerous starring Gina Lollobrigida in 1955 and in the opening scenes of the film Anzio from 1968 starring Robert Mitchum.

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The palace was one of the largest palaces and one of the largest buildings erected in Europe during the 18th century.

The taking of pictures is prohibited in most of the palace so we didn't get many pictures inside the palace.  

PALACE GARDENS 

Mt. Vesuvius is in the background covered by the clouds.

Gates to the hunting grounds?