In Caserta, there is one of the largest royal residences in the world, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997, with 1200 rooms and 123 hectares of park of baroque magnificence, chosen by George Lucas as the Royal Palace of Queen Amidala, the most beautiful palace in the Star Wars galaxy.

The largest building of the 18th century, the Royal Palace of Caserta was conceived with such a vision of grandeur that it seems almost difficult to understand in the context of today’s thinking.

Its construction began in 1752, when Charles of Bourbon (1716-1788), king of Naples and Sicily, a kingdom that had regained independence after more than 200 years, laid the first stone. His dream included not only the construction of the palace, but also the development of the city and the surrounding area.

We searched all over Europe, but there is nothing more beautiful than this palace, it is the ideal environment for the most sophisticated Kingdom in the Galaxy, the one that other planets see as a paradise.

(George Lucas)

In fact, the Carolino Aqueduct was built nearby, which will provide water supplies for the Royal Park, the city of Caserta and the Borgo di San Leucio, transformed into one of the most refined silk manufacturing centers in the world, as well as the Carditello farm.

King Charles chose Luigi Vanvitelli (1700-1773) to carry out the project. An Italian of Dutch origins, Vanvitelli was one of the greatest artists of his time, an architect but also a fine painter and set designer, among the best exponents of the late Baroque and a forerunner of Neoclassicism. The challenge he was given was to take inspiration from the palaces of Versailles and the Escorial, surpassing them in magnificence.

A grandeur that amazes when you climb the wonderful Royal Staircase that leads to the Royal Apartments composed of 116 steps of Trapani marble on which imposing statues and lions, also in marble, watch over, and an original double elliptical vault ceiling.

The staircase has been chosen as the location for numerous films, from Angels and Demons by Ron Howard to Mission Impossible III by J. J. Abrams, but it is in two episodes (Episode II – Attack of the Clones and Episode I – The Phantom Menace) of the Star Wars saga that it enters the myth. George Lucas chooses, in fact, the Reggia di Caserta to represent the elegant Royal Palace of the planet Naboo and it is from these stairs that Queen Amidala and the court will descend, taken prisoner by the invaders of the Federation, in the famous scene.

The halls and rooms of the royal apartments follow one another, starting from the Throne Room, in which practically all the best Neapolitan artists of the mid-1800s participated. A path today put in dialogue with the works belonging to the Lucio Amelio Terrae Motus collection which includes works by internationally renowned contemporaries such as Josef Beuys, Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Mimmo Paladino, Mario Schifano, Gianni Pisani, Robert Mapplethorpe and Jannis Kounellis.

The Royal Park is wonderful, composed of the Old Wood, with the large Fish Pond and the Castelluccia, a place of games and leisure for the little princes, and the English Garden with its wonderful Bath of Venus, strongly desired by Maria Carolina of Habsburg, sister of Marie Antoinette of France.

Vanvitelli’s skill as a set designer can be perceived by walking along the famous “waterway” to the Fountain of Diana and Actaeon located at the base of a gigantic waterfall, from which you can admire an exceptional perspective view of the Palace.

One of the places to see at least once in your life.

The Secret

In 1845, Ferdinand II of Bourbon designed the “flying chair”, visible during the visit to the apartments, considered the first “elevator” in Italy, built with a structure similar to a freight elevator.

Useful Info

Reggia di Caserta
Piazza Carlo di Borbone
81100 Caserta
Tel. +39 0823 448084

Park + Royal Apartments: full ticket 18 euro
Royal Park + English Garden: full ticket 9 euro
A tour of the park by golf cart is recommended