I_Reggia_di_Caserta_14
Criptoportico mock-roman ruins in the English Garden, Royal Palace of Caserta, Campania, Italy
The royal palace and gardens of Caserta, Campania, were first laid out by Luigi Vanvitelli in 1752, around an over 4 km long central axis intended to match the scale and grandeur of Le Nôtre’s work at Versailles and other major baroque designs. The main feature became the northern 3,3 km of the axis, a spectacular water piece starting at an artificial rock high on the opposing hillside, and toppling down as a series of waterfalls, cascades, fountains, water-steps and grottos ending in a long canal at the foot of the palace’s main parterre. The originally intended elaborate parterres where never fully realized, but the surrounding bosquets feature numerous follies and sculptures, most notably a miniature moated mock-fortress, the Castelluccia, where the young king could playact naval and land battles.
Near the top of hillside and waterfalls, Vanvitelli’s son Carlo Vanvitelli and John Graefer created one of Italy’s first English landscape gardens in 1786, which became a spectacular design in its own right, highly inspired by (and in part adorned by pieces from) the then beginning excavations of nearby Pompei. Featuring countless follies, temples, conservatories, pyramids, obelisques, rocks and waterfalls; the absolute centrepiece of the garden is a deep artificial ravine with an almost jungle-like atmosphere, sculpture pieces like the “Bath of Venus”, and most importantly a remarkable mock-roman-ruins grotto, the Criptoportico, which truly allows visitors to feel like archaeological explorers.
I_Reggia_di_Caserta_14
Criptoportico mock-roman ruins in the English Garden, Royal Palace of Caserta, Campania, Italy
The royal palace and gardens of Caserta, Campania, were first laid out by Luigi Vanvitelli in 1752, around an over 4 km long central axis intended to match the scale and grandeur of Le Nôtre’s work at Versailles and other major baroque designs. The main feature became the northern 3,3 km of the axis, a spectacular water piece starting at an artificial rock high on the opposing hillside, and toppling down as a series of waterfalls, cascades, fountains, water-steps and grottos ending in a long canal at the foot of the palace’s main parterre. The originally intended elaborate parterres where never fully realized, but the surrounding bosquets feature numerous follies and sculptures, most notably a miniature moated mock-fortress, the Castelluccia, where the young king could playact naval and land battles.
Near the top of hillside and waterfalls, Vanvitelli’s son Carlo Vanvitelli and John Graefer created one of Italy’s first English landscape gardens in 1786, which became a spectacular design in its own right, highly inspired by (and in part adorned by pieces from) the then beginning excavations of nearby Pompei. Featuring countless follies, temples, conservatories, pyramids, obelisques, rocks and waterfalls; the absolute centrepiece of the garden is a deep artificial ravine with an almost jungle-like atmosphere, sculpture pieces like the “Bath of Venus”, and most importantly a remarkable mock-roman-ruins grotto, the Criptoportico, which truly allows visitors to feel like archaeological explorers.