Belvedere di San Leucio
Caserta
KnownHistory & archaeology
The story
Ferdinando IV's silken utopia: a factory-village where silk was woven for the courts of Europe, with the looms and the workers' houses gathered around the belvedere.
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More gems in Caserta
History & archaeologyReggia di Caserta
Caserta
Vanvitelli's grand staircase, then three kilometres of garden climbing all the way to the waterfall, among fountains and mythological statues designed to astonish the Bourbons.
- History & archaeology
Reggia di Caserta — Collezione Terrae Motus
Caserta (CE)
In the halls of the Reggia di Caserta the Terrae Motus collection brings together the art born from the shock of the 1980 earthquake, from Warhol to Beuys, willed by the gallerist Lucio Amelio.
VillagesCasertavecchia
Caserta (CE)
On the ridge of the Tifatini mountains, this intact medieval borgo (old village) hugs the Norman cathedral with its Arab-Sicilian geometries, stone alleys and the cool air rising from the plain of Caserta.
CastlesCastello di Casertavecchia
Caserta (CE)
In the medieval borgo (old village) of Casertavecchia stand the ruins of the castle and its cylindrical tower, overlooking the plain of Terra di Lavoro.
◆ NatureOasi WWF Bosco di San Silvestro
Caserta (CE)
A former Bourbon hunting reserve behind the Reggia, today a protected wood where holm oaks and oaks climb two hills and silence has replaced the royal hunts.
More gems: History & archaeology
History & archaeologyStatua del Nilo ("Corpo di Napoli")
Largo Corpo di Napoli
A river god reclining for centuries in a quiet square, whom Neapolitans call the Corpo di Napoli: he leans his bearded head among putti and a sphinx.
◆ History & archaeologyCappella Pontano
Decumani
A small Renaissance temple on the decumanus, which the humanist Pontano had raised for his lost wife, still lined inside with Latin inscriptions dictated by his grief.
◆ History & archaeologySedile di Nilo
Decumani
On the corner of a small Spaccanapoli square survives the seat of the old Nilo quarter, where the nobles once gathered before the sedili of Naples vanished.
◆ History & archaeologyPort'Alba
Napoli
A seventeenth-century arch cut into the walls leads to the booksellers' street, where stalls of second-hand volumes pile up among yellowed pages and the shade of the old city.
◆ History & archaeologyPorta Capuana
zona Garibaldi
Between two cylindrical towers an arch of white marble opens like a Renaissance triumph, the old city gate facing the road to Capua.
◆ History & archaeologyReal Albergo dei Poveri
P.za Carlo III
An eighteenth-century colossus willed by Charles of Bourbon to shelter the poor of the Kingdom: a façade running more than three hundred metres, among the largest historic buildings in Europe.