What is Caserta known for?

Vanvitelli's Bourbon palace, larger than Versailles by volume, 1,200 rooms, UNESCO-listed in 1997 with park and aqueduct. Ferdinand IV's 1778 silk colony with utopian labor code; the royal factory still produces silk for Italian state ceremonies. The medieval predecessor village at 401 meters, kept its Romanesque cathedral when the Bourbons emptied it for the new plain city.

Caserta is a comune in the province of Caserta, Campania region of Italy, about 35 kilometers from Napoli.

Campania · Caserta

Caserta

Italy's answer to Versailles, built by the Bourbons on the Campanian plain with 1,200 rooms and a three-kilometer water axis.

35 km / 22 mi

Nearest hub (Napoli)

72,805

Population

Apr–Oct

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Why come

Caserta sitson the Campanian plain, 25 kilometers north of Naples at the foot of the Tifatini hills. The city exists because Charles III of Bourbon decided in 1750 to build a palace that would rival Versailles and the Royal Palace of Madrid, far enough inland to be safe from naval bombardment. Luigi Vanvitelli laid the first stone in 1752: five floors, 1,200 rooms, 1,742 windows, 34 staircases. The gardens stretch three kilometers from the back façade to a cascade fed by the Carolino Aqueduct, also Vanvitelli's design. The complex was listed by UNESCO in 1997 together with the silk village of San Leucio, the utopian industrial colony Ferdinand IV built on a hill four kilometers away. Up the road, Casertavecchia, the medieval village abandoned when the Bourbons moved everyone down to the plain, keeps its 12th-century Romanesque cathedral. The modern city below is a working provincial capital, not a tourist town.

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Gallery

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Known for

Reggia di Caserta
Bourbon royal palace begun in 1752 by Luigi Vanvitelli, five floors, 1,200 rooms, UNESCO-listed since 1997 with the park and the Carolino Aqueduct.
Parco Reale e Giardino Inglese
Three-kilometer formal park ending in a cascade, with an English Garden added by Maria Carolina in 1786, the first of its kind in Italy.
Casertavecchia
Medieval hilltop village at 401 meters, 10 km from the city, abandoned when the Bourbons relocated the population to the plain.
Duomo di San Michele a Casertavecchia
Romanesque cathedral built between 1113 and 1153, with Arab-Norman influences in the dome and the sculpted portals.
Belvedere di San Leucio
Bourbon silk colony at 145 meters, founded 1778 as a planned industrial community with its own laws; the royal silk factory still operates.

When to visit

Best months · Apr–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

April through June and September through October are the comfortable months on the plain. The Reggia gardens are at their best in May, when the parterres bloom and the cascade runs full. July and August push into the high thirties; Vanvitelli's three-kilometer walk from palace to cascade becomes a heat exposure rather than a pleasure, though the shuttle bus runs. November to March is mild, often grey, and the Reggia interior is the better visit. Casertavecchia, 400 meters up, stays five degrees cooler than the plain year-round. The Settembre al Borgo festival of music and theater fills the medieval village every September.