Scala, Reggia di Caserta

Speranza




The enormous palace of the Reggia in Caserta was designed by Luigi Vanvitelli as the central feature of a vast landscape for Charles III, son of Philip V of Spain, who had succeeded the Autrian viceroys as rules of the two Sicilies in 1734.

It was begun in 1752.

Each of the mammoth steps of the majestic staircase leading up from the central vestibule is formed of a single block of the Sicilian marble from Trapani, called Lumacehella.

The walls are lined with pink and grey marble from Dragoni and Vitulano.

The snarling lions are by Tommaso Solari and Paolo Persico, the statues in the niches are the work of Violani and Solari.

Caserta was built by slaves, prisoners captured by the royal navies on the shore of Tripolitanna and criminals from the bagnios.

It was the last notable enterprise in Europe to be carried out by slave labour.