Historical background

The large Royal Palace and Park, designed and presented by Luigi Vanvitelli and finished by his son Carlo, were inspired by the European residences of the 18th century as, for example, the French Versailles and the Spanish Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso.

The Caroline Aqueduct

The construction works, with the delimitation of the area and the planting of the first plants, began in 1753, at the same time as those for the construction of the Caroline Aqueduct, whose waters from the slopes of Mount Taburno would have fed the fountains of the royal gardens. The present Royal Park is only in part the realization of the project of Luigi Vanvitelli, as the work was completed by his son Carlo, who, due to a lack of funds, had to reduce the paternal design.

The English Garden

The English Garden was assigned, starting from 1786, to botanist and gardener John Andrew Graefer in cooperation with the architect Carlo Vanvitelli himself. However, from 1788 the Garden was continued by Ferdinand IV, who did not succeed in finishing it because of the military emergencies at the end of the century.