The Bourbons establish themselves in Naples in 1734. In that age the French court influenced the European culture with its "levity", "joie de vivre": love for luxury and comfort, intellectual pleasures as music, poetry and literature. Even sciences developed around the courts.
Also in the Kingdom of the Two Scillies sumptuous palaces, "galanterie" (gallantry), precious and refined objects (stylish handmade articles finished up with ceramics or porcelain, silk and precious fabrics) became the scenery of courts and circles reunited and dedicated to the poetry (Arcadia age) and to the music (Naples, second city in Europe for population during the whole century, is also one of the capitals of the baroque music; here, in 1737 was realised, just in eight months, San Carlo Theatre, the most ancient theatre operative in Europe.
In order to give Naples the image of an authentic and pompous European Capital, Charles begins a politics of renewal of the Royal Palaces. He also calls foreign artists and artisans; founds the porcelain manufacture with the help of artists coming from Dresda; calls tapestry-makers from Florentine School; develops, in atelier, the manufacturing of gold and silver, hard stones, wood and the fusion of bronze; moreover he calls the best potters of the Kingdom to found the "Real Fabbrica di Faenza San Carlo di

Caserta".Many of these ceramists are from Cerreto Sannita and San Lorenzello. Both these two centres have medieval origin, even if according to someone the origin of Cerreto Sannita all'antica Cominum Cerritum ricordata da Tito Livio. goes back to the ancient Cominum Cerritum mentioned by Tito Livio. Various earthquakes damaged these towns, particularly the very violent one of 1688. After the earthquake Cerreto was completely rebuilt following very interesting and topical aseismic rules: an octagonal plan, ample principal streets and low buildings to minimise the telluric effects; another particular precautionprecaution was represented by the broken windowsill in order to program the walling deformation. The Cathedral of SS. Trinità, the Parish Church of S. Martino and the Church of S. Gennaro show up among other holy buildings. Out of town we point out the ruins of the Ducal Dyeing House and the Hannibal Bridge. Artisan shops hand down the real art of Cerreto in XVI century: ceramics. Great masters, as Russo and Nicola Giustiniani, created the "Scuola delle Maioliche Cerretesi" (Ceramics School of Cerreto). There important families of potters learned ceramic art; their creations were exported in all Southern Italy.
Today the Ceramics Museum (near the Town Hall) testifies the development of this art during the centuries.
Nicola Giustiniani came from San Lorenzello, a picturesque country town on the shores of the Titerno stream. San Lorenzello has not lost its traditional eighteenth-century character expressed in the really interesting Congregation of S. Maria della Sanità, particularly in the floor which dates back to the XVIII century, the best period in the history of the San Lorenzello ceramics. Several pieces of pottery are still produced in the shops of the historical centre: utensils of popular use, statues, shepherds and precious pieces of religious inspiration, landscapes and allegorical characters decorated with typical warm Mediterranean colours. In Largo Umberto it is possible to visit the Church of San Lorenzo Martire, reconstructed after 1885 and a valuable stone fountain surmounted by a bronze statue. The statue is not far from Palazzo Massone which is in an exemplary state of maintenance. The great building programs of Charles were due to the demand of symbolic representation of the new Royal power and to furnish a rapid solution to the problem of the unemployment, which springs from the previous foreign dominations, and construction work has always been a sure solution for weak economies.
To this end the Bourbons acquired numerous lands, which were converted to game estates (hunting was almost considered a State's function, rather a necessary comfort from governing); they also improved the access roads to the various estates and imported selected animals to repopulate the game reserves.
Political and military reasons but above all international motives of prestige pushed the Bourbons to build the Caserta Palace. They wanted to establish a new Capital, different and distant from Naples (as Versailles from Paris): equally sumptuous and richly decorated but also with an administrative function (which Caserta never had). Charles purchased the feud of Caserta by the Acquaviva and the Palace construction began January 20th 1752 under the direction of Luigi Vanvitelli architect of Dutch origin. The result is an imposing, sumptuous and spectacular building; the Palace has a rectangular plan 247 mt. in length, 190 mt. depth and 41 mt. in height; internally there are approximately 1200 rooms with 1742 windows, of which 245 in the façade.
The main entrance is located in a great semicircular square; from the inferior vestibule (where the Latin Hercules statue is situated) it is possible to go up the fabulous staircase which has been studied to constitute a sort of theatre with perfect acoustics; a hidden orchestra always greeted the Sovereign's arrival.
The superior vestibule is the centre of the whole building; it is equidistant from the Royal power (the statue of the Royal Majesty sitting on a lion serves to arouse fear and reverence in the spectator) and from the religious power (the altar of the Palatine Chapel). The Royal apartments occupy the first floor while in the rest of the building offices, barracks and personnel lodgings were located.
It's customary to divide the historical Apartment in two parts on the basis of a chronological ratio: the Old apartment (realised by Carlo Vanvitelli between 1770 and 1790 following the directives of his father Luigi but with evident rococo influences) and the Nineteenth-century apartment which has been commissioned during the French period.
In the Apartments there are many objects and furnishings produced by the various Bourbons factories. Through Ferdinand IV will extraordinary paintings were hung to show the beauties and the power of the Kingdom. Many painting by Jacob Philipp Hackert the court painter reproduce the most representative views of the harbours of the Kingdom and Royal Sites.
The Court Theatre (inaugurated on the occasion of the wedding between Ferdinand IV and Maria Carolina of Hapsburg) still today preserves its eighteenth-century style with the particularity that the background of the stage can be opened to reveal the park.
As all the great European Palaces, Caserta also reserves great importance to its beautiful Park: 120 hectares of grounds planned by Luigi Vanvitelli but realised by his son Carlo, in accordance with Italian style gardening. The Park represented the moment of maximum enjoyment for the King, with trees, clearings, pathways and a succession of fishponds with fountains which lead up to the great water falls at the extreme end of the Park. To feed these waterfalls an aqueduct was purposely realised on the model of those in the ancient Rome. In the proximity of the Palace, on the left, long paths traverse the Old Woods up to the Great fishpond with an artificial islet created in its centre rich in vegetation. This beautiful pond was conceived as a "room of conversation" for the young King Ferdinand.
A totally different character pervades instead the English Garden in the proximity of the waterfalls. Begun in 1785 by desire of Queen Maria Carolina almost in opposition to the Great Park since it doesn't respect the neo-classic symmetry and the rigid geometry. It has a preference for the romantic casualness of sinuous paths with changing views and clearings populated by ancient statues and plants, according to the English style of the early Seventeen Hundreds representing one of the first such examples in Italy.
Following "the Bourbons tracks" is definitely the best way to visit Caserta. The centre spreads out at east of the Palace. Leaving the Palace and turning left, at n. 13 of Corso Trieste, where Luigi Vanvitelli lived and died, it is possible to see a headstone at his memory. In the commercial Mazzini Street there is S. Sebastiano Church, also realised by Vanvitelli in a very simple style. Then we get in Vanvitelli Square, dominated by Palazzo Vecchio, first used by the royal family to supervise the works in the Royal Palace and later by J.P. Hackert as a study. The nineteenth-century monument of the Architect is in the square gardens. Not far you can find the Duomo (Cathedral), planned by G. Patturelli in 1822; its style is noble but also cool as it reflects the stylistic tendencies of the period between late rococo, neo-classicism and neo-Gothic. The construction of the Palace moved on the plain the interest centre of the area; while the old centre on Virgo Mount, later on called Casertavecchia,became less important. This burg seems now crystallised in its medieval character. Extraordinary the Cathedral, ended in 1153, with a Benedictine plant and romantic Norman-Arabian shapes; very little remains of the Castle: you can only see the ruins and the donjon (wanted by Frederic II) 30 meters high, at that time the biggest in Europe. Nobles start a sort of competition to stay near the Royal family following their moving. All around you start to see villas and luxury buildings following the style of the royal palaces. "Villa Guevara di Bovino" in Recale, frequented by Lady Hamilton, is one of the most beautiful, even if built before the Royal Palace. The villa is still today sumptuous and magnificent; the Italian style garden and the frescos realised by the same artists working for the Royal Palace in Caserta, are wonderful.
A new silk manufacture is realised to embellish the Royal Palace; it is located in the immediate proximity of the Palace, in San Leucio. Here the tapestries were directly realised under the direction of the king; San Leucio is the only case in Europe of a royal residence in a manufacture. Ferdinand used this site as a refuge from duties and weight of court life, but it was also the experiment of a society of equal people having equal rights. About this we will speak more diffusely in "The Enlightenment" itinerary.