Located in the Municipality of San Tammaro, about 4 kilometers from the town, the Reggia di Carditello appears very small and spartan, more like a country estate, albeit rich and with admirable architecture. Yet, it has a charm that only a few monumental complexes can boast and, as we will see later, today it has become a symbol of redemption for the Caserta area.
The elegant apartments reserved for the sovereign and the Royal Chapel of the Ascension are nothing more than a small section of what used to be a very large model farm, a complex and avant-garde system that extended for almost 2,100 hectares.
The neoclassical architecture, while inserting the Royal Hunting Lodge at the center of the complex, flanks it with stables, buildings and warehouses for production activities.
Woods, arable fields, swampy areas, dairy buffalo farms, use of modern equipment and cutting-edge agronomic techniques: the vastness of the estate allowed the coexistence of real leisure activities with the more purely productive ones.
It is in Carditello that the first buffalo mozzarella (or something very similar) was most likely born, today one of the leading DOP products that identify the Caserta area.
Overall, it was a (successful) experiment by the enlightened ruler of Naples, who considered the Reggia di Carditello not only a convenient base for his beloved hunting expeditions but also a real agricultural experimentation laboratory, a model company in which applying innovative cultivation and breeding methods for his time, the agricultural counterpart of his anticipatory industrial vision that had found fulfillment in the Royal silk factories of San Leucio, considered the ideal factory.
Visiting the Royal Palace of Carditello today means being in the presence of a monument that is being reborn and is still in progress: the restorations to bring it back to its former glory are not completely finished – the works for the restoration of the royal apartments remain to be completed – however already as it appears now it allows us to understand how magnificent the building could be and positively impress the noble guests of King Ferdinand.
Basically it was a building that had to respond to men’s desires and needs: although Queen Maria Carolina frequented the Royal Palace of Carditello, it was above all the King who used it.
The architecture of the Royal Palace of Carditello
Two symmetrical T-shaped wings then branch off from the main building of the Carditello Palace, interspersed with square buildings, where houses, warehouses and stables are located.
The decorations are sober: the walls are enriched with pilasters and the terrace of the hunting lodge shows what remains of a collection of statues representing warriors wearing helmets. On the walls of the buildings that enclose the complex on the sides there are sundials that allowed the farmers to know the times of work with a certain precision.
The entire space in front is occupied by a huge oval space, once in beaten earth and today with a beautiful green lawn, marked on the sides by two fountains with obelisk and in the center by a neoclassical temple. Seeing it today, one certainly does not imagine that this square of grass was an equestrian track, intended for the training of horses and their evolutions. And the temple was the privileged position from which the King could admire his horses.
Visit Carditello: its present and its future
Today in Carditello public events such as Jazz & Wine are organized, musical events of attraction, the enhancement of the site is promoted and in addition to the breeding of horses, the production of honey, coffee, wine under the Carditello brand has been started with the use of native Asprinio vines. and Pallagrello.
As stated by Eng. Roberto Format, Director of the Real Site Foundation of Carditello, “The mission of Carditello (…) focuses on the social role of museums and cultural sites (…) favoring the participation of the community not only on the cultural front, but also in the environmental and of civic activism “(source: https://www.fondazionecarditello.org/website/incclusion/)
At the Reggia di Carditello it is possible to do hippotherapy activities, yoga, a wellness program in the eucalyptus forest and for some time there has been the possibility of boarding a hot air balloon for a tethered flight over the Palace.
The balloon flight has an absolutely sustainable cost to allow everyone to experience a unique experience and attract visitors to the Carditello site.
To book and organize a tour or a transfer, you can: visit the official website and do everything from there, call us at +39 081 3417101 or +39 3288058000 (active H24), send us an email to info@napolincc.com headquarters are in Via Isac Rabin, 9 – 80024 Cardito – NA
