Naples/Caserta - Palace of Caserta - Gardens

One of the features of the park that I think is fantastic beyond all that is fantastic is the 3 km long “pond” with a 70 foot tall cascade at the end of it. After the cramped quarters of the Centro Historico in Naples, the open English style park with its great wazzok of a “pond” is rather nice. As with the palace itself the impression is one of overwhelming size, quantity rather than quality. This is sad because there are actually some really amazing sculptures here, they just get a little lost in the sheer vastness of it all.

To walk around the pond/canal it takes about an hour with stopping at each fountain and terrace for a good look and photo op. I would recommend taking an umbrella if it is drizzling or raining. The ornamental trees provide little protection from the elements.



There are tons of sculptures, mostly in collected groups: the arts, the sciences, personifications of architecture, geography etc. and urns supported by tritons and putti. I bet in the summer it must be delightful, but around about New Year’s it’s a little depressing, especially with the drizzle and fog.  The sheer size makes up for it though, damned impressive.

Every quarter kilometer or so one comes to a new fountain and or terrace. Each with it's own theme and dripping with ornament and sculpture.

First up is the fountain of dolphins.  They are sort of proto-evolution dolphins as they have claws and are actually rather terrifying. If marvelously sculpted in a grotesquely fantastic way. 

Can't sleep the dolphins will eat me! 

Next up is the Fountain of Aeolus. Here is a sort of grotto with several dozen zephyrs spouting water jets.

Fountain of Aeolus. I'd love to get in that artificial grotto, it looks cool! 

After the fountain of Aeolus comes the Fountain of Ceres.  I think she is holding a medallion of Persephone? 

Ceres, being all fountain like. 

The palace gets further and further away.

It's gonna be a long walk back. 

The fountain of Venus and Adonis is next. 

Not entirely sure what is going on in this sculpture but it looks darn sexy.

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Finally the statue of Diana and Actaeon, the unfortunate peeping Tom.  For his crime of catching the goddess Diana in the nude he was turned into a stag and torn apart by hunting dogs. Nice! Give me that old time religion. The cascade leads from a grotto about 200 feet above the fountain.

Fountain of Diana and Actaeon. 

Someone liked to sculpt dogs methinks. Here's Actaeon getting torn apart:

And here's Diana with all her bathing attendants. It suddenly all becomes clear:

One last look at the cascade from close up and back to the palace. During the summer there are acres of garden to explore.

Naples/Caserta - Palace of Caserta - Interior

Lion on Staircase at the Palace of Caserta

Staircase

Staircase at Caserta with Octagonal Hall

The central octagonal hall on the Piano Nobile was inspired by Santa Maria Della Salute in Venice (one of my favorite Churches, so light and airy). Walking around the hall the spatial composition is mind bogglingly beautiful. The staircase is magnificent; absolutely a work of art, double plus the lions are so cute!

The chapel was designed after Louis XIV’s royal chapel at Versailles, it is a fair imitation. The throne room has an incredible ceiling, however, after that though the interior goes downhill very quickly. I’m not sure if it just needs restoration but it really seems like the designers were just phoning it in. Now this could be because the palace was remodeled in the early 19th century during that whole Joachim Murat fiasco. Or it could be that I am just spoiled after the palaces of Russia and France.

Some of the neoclassical-empire style decoration is elegant, but most of it is ponderously academic, over large, lacking in detail or in a few cases, sense.

But the staircase and the octagonal hall! Totally worth the trip.

Chapel at Caserta 

Naples /Caserta - Palace of Caserta

Caserta, Front Facade 

If you have a half day to spare and have already visited Herculaneum I would recommend heading out to the Palace of Caserta.

Trains leave Napoli Centrale in Piazza Garibaldi about every 10-20 minutes. It’s a fairly easy ride on a commuter train. Tried to take a bus, but was repeatedly mauled by ancient gypsy woman while trying to read the timetable, so went with the train.

The train drops off as Caserta’s railway station in, can you guess? Piazza Giuseppe Garibaldi in Caserta. As you exit the station the palace is right there in front of you being big and palace-like. I am not kidding about the big, at 1,200 rooms it is one of the largest palaces in Europe.

Started in the 1750’s Caserta, when the Bourbon monarchy was ruling Naples, it was designed with the massive palace of Versailles in mind. However, Caserta was finished in less than thirty years whereas Construction on Versailles continued for 120 years and never reached full completion. Like the Royal Palace in Naples it was built as a symbol of power and as a sort of tribute to the idea of monarchy. Somewhat like the Escorial in Spain, Caserta was meant to be more than just a palace. It was also to contain a military barracks and a university, skipping the monastery included in the Escorial’s plan. I get the impression that Carlo de Bourbon really just liked huge buildings. The palace of the poor in Naples was built at the same time (see: Albergo dei Poverei).

In April 1945 the palace was the site of the signing of terms of the unconditional German surrender of forces in Italy. The agreement covered between 600,000 and 900,000 soldiers along the Italian Front including troops in sections of Austria. It was also used in the tragic Star Wars Episodes I and II and served as the Vatican in a number of better movies.

Rear, Center Facade

One of four courtyard

Naples - Palazzo Saluzza di Corigliano

A palace on the San Domenico square that was entirely rebuilt after the earthquake of 1688. For some reason I did not get a good picture of it. Though I did capture the beauty of one of the ground floor windows with an inspirational quote applied in paint to enliven our progress through the city.

It was even in English.

Inspirational Writing in Naples on the Palazzo Saluzza di Corigliano

Rome - December 28, 2011 - Palatine

Palatine Palace, bit...

The Palatine hill had been the residence of the wealthy and well to do of Rome since the earliest days of the republic (about 500 B.C.E), however it was when Augustus became Romes first emperor that it really came into its own.

The house of Augustus became the Palace of Tiberius, which became the much enlarged Flavian Palace, and then the massive Palace of Septimius Severus. By which time the palace had grown so large that the hill had to be extended on great supporting arches.

Much of the supporting arches are visible and rather well preserved as well as a section of aqueduct that ran across the sidewalk on the Via di San Gregorio. I like arches, and I don't care what Freud had to say about it.

Aqueduct...why was I staring into the sun?