Reggia di Caserta e Parco Reale: orari e biglietti

When you arrive at the Royal Palace of Caserta the sight is impressive. It is no coincidence that the Royal Palace of Caserta is a UNESCO World Heritage Site with its wonderful gardens of the Royal Park. The advice is to take some time to visit both: the Royal Palace and the attached and extensive gardens.

What to see in the Royal Palace of Caserta

The history of the Royal Palace of Caserta

Commissioned by Charles of Bourbon modeled on the Versailles of Louis XIV, the Royal Palace of Caserta was designed by the architect Luigi Vanvitelli. Its construction began in 1752: the supervision of the work first passed to Carlo Vanvitelli and then continued under the guidance of other architects until 1847.

The slowdown in work was due to a decline in interest (and funds) following the departure of Charles III: under his successor, Ferdinand IV, the court only lived in the palace during the fair season, while Ferdinand II, the last king, made it his preferred residence.

The Palace belonged to the assets of the Bourbon crown (except during the Napoleonic period), then to the Savoia until 1921, when it passed to the State. It currently houses the Superintendence for Architectural, Landscape, Historical, Artistic, and Ethnoanthropological Heritage of Caserta and Benevento, the EPT of Caserta, the Society of National History, the Higher School of Public Administration, and the Non-Commissioned Officers School of the Air Force as well as the Museum of the Opera and the Territory which collects historical-artistic documents of Caserta.

Architecture of the Royal Palace of Caserta

The building of the Royal Palace of Caserta has a rectangular plan, with four internal courtyards divided by two central building bodies that intersect perpendicularly. The original project included two semicircular wings that were to embrace the enormous square facing the main façade, softening the now isolated front.

The two façades – identical and facing one towards the parade ground, the other towards the park – are made of brick and travertine with a rusticated base, double rows of windows, and a balustrade on the top floor. From the palace’s atrium one accesses the lower vestibule, with a perspective on the four courtyards opening the view onto the park. The spectacular grand staircase, with a large central flight followed by two side flights, leads to the octagonal upper vestibule, illuminated by large windows.

Opposite is the Palatine Chapel, rectangular with a semicircular apse, decorated with polychrome marbles and a barrel vault adorned with coffers and gilded rosettes, modeled on that of Versailles. To the left of the Chapel are the Royal Apartments including the Throne Room preceded by anterooms, the king’s apartment, and the queen’s apartment.

Anterooms

The anterooms are: the Hall of the Halberdiers, the Hall of the Bodyguards, and the Hall of Alexander which serves as a connection between the eighteenth-century and nineteenth-century rooms. From here open, on the left, the eighteenth-century apartment and, on the right, the nineteenth-century one.

The New Apartment, built during the years of the French reign, is introduced by two neoclassical anterooms, the Hall of Mars and the Hall of Astraea, where military virtues are exalted. The Throne Room, the largest of the Royal Apartments, has Corinthian pilasters on the walls while the architrave is decorated with portraits of the royal house, created by various sculptors.

The Council Room, from which the king’s private apartment is accessed, features a vaulted ceiling frescoed by Cammarano with the theme Minerva crowning Art and Science and walls decorated with large nineteenth-century paintings; at the center, a table decorated with porcelain medallions with the popular costumes of the kingdom. Following are the Anteroom and the Bedroom of Francis II, furnished in Empire style in mahogany and gilded bronzes while the Bathroom of Francis II has a Carrara marble toilet with a granite tub adorned with leonine protomes and a vault frescoed by Cammarano with Ceres.

In the first and second Anterooms of Joachim Murat and in the Bedroom are part of the furnishings from the royal residence of Portici: mahogany commodes and consoles with gilded bronzes are in French Empire style, as are the bed and the silk-upholstered chairs with the sovereign’s cyphers while paintings decorate the walls. The Eighteenth-Century Apartment, the first to be inhabited by Ferdinand IV and Maria Carolina, is preceded by four conversation rooms, called Rooms of the Seasons for the frescoes on the vaults.

Apartments

Of the Apartment of Ferdinand I of Bourbon, the first room, the His Majesty’s Rich Cabinet, is decorated with furnishings by the famous German cabinetmaker Weisweiler and gouaches by Hackert depicting the royal sites.

In the Apartment of Maria Carolina stand out four small rooms decorated in the typical rococo style; the decoration of the Workroom, with yellow satin walls framed by mirrors, is very impressive; through the Cabinet of Stucco is accessed the Bathroom Cabinet and the Cabinet for Espresso Use, with Venetian mirrors, cherubs, frescoes by Fischetti, and a marble tub with trompe l’oeil decorations.

From the boudoir one moves into the Company Room, then the Ladies of the Court Room up to the two reading rooms preceding the Royal Library, composed of three rooms decorated by the German painter Fugger. The Elliptical Room, originally intended for court entertainment, hosts the reconstruction of the Royal Nativity Scene: from here access is gained to the Art Gallery, a collection of works (still lifes, battle scenes, the series of Ports of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies by Hackert) distributed across several rooms, some of which, the Picture Gallery, display portraits of the Bourbon dynasty royals.

Back rooms

In the back rooms of the historic Apartment, finally, is the setup of the contemporary art exhibition Terrae Motus, assembled by the gallerist Lucio Amelio after the 1980 earthquake with works by major contemporary artists (Warhol, Haring, Schifano, Beuys, Pistoletto).

The Theater of the Royal Palace of Caserta

Of great importance is, finally, the Theater, on the western side of the Palace, a scale reproduction of the San Carlo of Naples with five tiers of boxes and a sumptuous royal box: the only room completed by Vanvitelli senior at the wish of Ferdinand IV, it was inaugurated in 1769. Along with the building, Vanvitelli conceived the surrounding Park, a splendid example of an Italian garden.

Royal Park and Gardens of the Caserta Palace

The current Royal Park is only partly the realization of Luigi Vanvitelli’s project; the works were completed by his son Carlo, who downsized, due to lack of funds, his father’s design. The layout is divided into three parts.

First part of the Royal Park

The first part of the park, immediately behind the Royal Palace, is dedicated to the parterre (a lawn with straight avenues) and includes the Old Forest (pre-existing to the Palace) in which stands the Castelluccia, a sixteenth-century building rebuilt in 1769 in the form of a miniature fortress near which the young Ferdinando IV practiced mock battles. The avenues lead to the Peschiera, an artificial lake with a small island in the center, embellished by a circular temple.

Second part of the Royal Park

The second part of the park, characterized by water games flowing from the fountains arranged aligned with the Palace, begins from the “Margherita” fountain: from two side ramps, one ascends to the Hercules bridge where the great “waterway” begins. Following the slope of the hill, basins of water, overlapping tanks decorated with statues alternate; two wide roads, bordered by holm oak hedges and oak groves, flank it up to the large basin, into which from the slopes of Monte Briano falls an impressive waterfall.

The first fountain encountered is called the “Dolphins” because the water flows from the mouths of three large fish carved in stone. Next is the “Aeolus” fountain, a large exedra in which numerous “caves” open that simulate the abode of the winds, represented by numerous statues of zephyrs, never completed. Then there are seven descending basins forming as many waterfalls and the “Ceres” fountain, symbol of Sicily’s fertility, with statues of the goddess and the island’s two rivers. The last fountain stages the story of “Venus and Adonis”.

In the basin below the Monte Briano waterfall, called “Diana’s Bath“, two important marble groups depict Actaeon at the moment when, transformed into a stag, he is about to be torn apart by his own dogs and Diana, surrounded by nymphs, surprised as she leaves the bath.

Third part of the Royal Park

The third part is the English Garden, commissioned by Maria Carolina. It was Lord Hamilton who persuaded the queen to compete with her sister Marie Antoinette of France, who at Versailles had the Petit Trianon built. The English botanist Andrew Graefer was therefore called, who in 1782 began work in the area near the large waterfall, where the terrain sloping towards the south lends itself to fanciful compositions and the cultivation of exotic species.

The garden offers a series of scenic places with deep references to the models of the time: the cryptoporticus, with statues from the Pompei excavations and the Farnese collection; the small Venus’ bath pond, with fake Pompeian ruins; the English-style casino, built in two floors, with a base and Doric pillars supporting a cornice adorned with medallions, which was Graefer’s residence and, finally, the apiary, an area used as water reservoir by Vanvitelli, later used for beekeeping and finally turned into a greenhouse in 1826.

Nearby, the four greenhouses where Graefer planted the plants he sought in Capri, in Salento or in Palermo. Close by are the Aquarium, intended for aquatic plants, the Rose Garden and the Botanical School.

Museum of the Work and the Territory of Caserta

The Museum of the Work and the Territory is housed in the undergrounds of the Royal Palace of Caserta, restored and used with full respect for the original architecture. It collects a series of objects that document and illustrate the Vanvitelli work, the history of the Caserta area, including archaeological finds recovered from the 1990 excavations and the life of the Bourbon court between the 18th and 19th centuries. In addition to this, several other works of art kept for decades in the deposits of the Campanian Superintendencies, and only now returned to the public.

Very interesting are the architectural models executed by the cabinetmaker Antonio Rosz and commissioned by Vanvitelli. The models, which faithfully reproduced the Royal Palace, were submitted by the architect to the opinion of Charles III.

Opening Hours of the Royal Palace of Caserta

The Royal Palace of Caserta is closed only on Tuesdays.

Royal Apartments

Opening 8:30 AM – 7:30 PM
Last entrance 7:00 PM
Exit from the Museum 7:25 PM

Park of the Royal Palace

Opening Hours 8:30 AM

January: last entrance at 3:00 PM/closing at 4:00 PM
February: last entrance at 3:30 PM/closing at 4:30 PM
March: last entrance at 4:00 PM/closing at 5:00 PM
From April to September: last entrance at 6:00 PM/closing at 7:00 PM
October: last entrance at 4:30 PM/closing at 5:30 PM
November and December: last entrance at 2:30 PM/closing at 3:30 PM

English Garden

Opening Hours 8:30 AM
January: last entrance at 2:00 PM/closing at 3:00 PM
February: last entrance at 2:30 PM/closing at 3:30 PM
March: last entrance at 3:00 PM/closing at 4:00 PM
From April to September: last entrance at 5:00 PM/closing at 6:00 PM
October: last entrance at 4:00 PM/closing at 5:00 PM
November: last entrance at 2:00 PM/closing at 3:00 PM
December: last entrance at 1:30 PM/closing at 2:30 PM

Ticket Prices for the Royal Palace of Caserta and the Royal Park

€ 14.00 Full Park + Apartments (to visit the Royal Apartments, Royal Park, and English Garden) / The ticket is limited by time slot. Access to the Complex will not be possible at a time different from the one selected at the time of purchase.

€ 9.00 Full Park (to visit the Royal Park and the English Garden)

€ 3.00 Evening Apartments (to visit the Royal Apartments. Available for purchase from 5 PM) / The ticket is limited by time slot. Access to the Complex will not be possible at a time different from the one selected at the time of purchase.

€ 2.00 Reduced Park + Apartments EU Citizens 18-24 years old (for European Union citizens aged between 18 and 24 years to visit the Royal Apartments, Royal Park, and English Garden, subject to the opening hours of the Royal Park and the English Garden) / The ticket is limited by time slot. Access to the Complex will not be possible at a time different from the one selected at the time of purchase.

Free Park + Apartments (for minors under 18 and those entitled to concessions for visiting the Royal Park and the Royal Apartments) /The ticket is limited by time slot. Access to the Complex will not be possible at a time different from the one selected at the time of purchase.

Free Park (for minors under 18 and those entitled to concessions for visiting the Royal Park)