Royal Palace of Caserta and its park, inserted as one of the 50 Italian UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1997

The Royal Park is part of the project preseanted by the architect Luigi Vanvitelli to sovereign, it is inspired by the gardens of the great european residences of the time and it merging the tradition of the italian renaissance garden with solutions introduced by André Le Notre in Versailles. The work with the delimitation of the area and planting of first plants, began in 1753, together the ones for the construction of the aqueduct Carolino whose waters  from the slopesof mount Taburno would feed the fountains of the royal gardens.

The formal garden, as it is this day, it is only a part of the realization planned by Luigi Vanvitelli, in fact his death in 1773 the acqueduct was finished but no fountain was made still. The work was completed by his son Carlo (1740-1821), who, while simplifying his father design, was a true filmmaker, retaining the compositional rhythm of the alternation of fountains, ponds, meadows, and waterfalls.

For those who leave the palace the gardens present themselves divided in two parts: The first one consists of a large parterre  separated by a central avenue leading up to the fountain Margherita, flanked by groves of oak and hornbeam, arranged symmetrically to form a semicircular green “theatrical” scene.

To the left of building, in the so-called “Old Wood”, whose name recalls the existence of a previous renaissance garden, there is the Castelluccia a construction that simulates a miniature castle, from which the young Ferdinando IV practiced in mock ground battles. In Peschiera grande an artificicial lake elliptical in shape with a small island in the middle, were it fought naval battales with a flotillia constructed just for this purpose.

The secon part of the park, made entirely by Carlo Vanvitelli, starts from the fountain Margherita, from which unfolds the famous waterways, on which from the south to the north lies  the fountain of “Delfini”, so-called because the water comes out from the mouths of three large marine monsters carved in the stone and the fountain of “Eolo”, formed by a large exedra in which there are numerous caves that simulate the home of the winds, represented by statues of “zephire”. The main axis is structured in seven sloping tanks forming as many waterfalls concluded with the fountain of Cerce that represents the fecundity of Sicily, with the statues of the goddes and the two rivers of the island. The last fountain is one in which is represented the story of Venus and Adonis.

Finally, in the basin, called Diana’s Bath, below the waterfall of mount Briano, two major marmoreal blocks depicting Actaeon when, transformed into a deer, is going to be devoured by his own dogs, and Diana surrounded by nymphs, while leaves the waters. An artificial grotto, built with large blocks of tufa, the so-called Torrione, stands on the top of the waterfall, where you can enjoy the view of a unique landscape

On the side of the fountain of Diana, from 1785, at the behest of Maria Carolina, wife of Ferdinand IV, Carlo Vanvitelli and the english gardener John Andrew Graefer realized the first Italian garden landscape.

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