7 WORKSHOP SESSION Angeliki Chronopoulou Assorestauro Reggia di Caserta Historical overview The Royal Palace of Caserta is a former royal residence located in southern Italy. It was constructed by the Bourbon Family as their main residence during their royalty in Naples. Being one of the largest palaces erected in Europe during the 18th century, in 1997, it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Having been described as “the swan song of the spectacular art of the Baroque, from which it adopted all the features needed to create the illusions of multidirectional space”, the Royal Palace of Caserta in terms of volume, is one of the largest royal residences in the world. HISTORICAL FRAMEWORK It was in 1750 when Carlo di Borbone (1716-1788) decided to build the Royal Palace of Ca- serta as the ideal center of the new kingdom of Naples that was now autonomous from the Spanish aegis. The site selected was the plain of Terra di Lavoro, previously dominated by the sixteenth-century Palazzo Acquaviva. The design of the Palace was commissioned to the architect Luigi Vanvitelli (1700-1773). The construction of the Royal Palace started in 1752. When Carlo di Borbone lef the kingdom of Naples to reach Madrid, there was a delay in the construction of the Palace so that upon the death of Luigi Vanvitelli in 1773 it was still far from complete. Carlo Vanvitelli and other architects, completed the Royal Residence. It was in 1847 when the Throne Room was completed. The Royal Palace of Caserta re- mained in the property of the Bourbon family for over a century, from 1752 to 1860, when it passed to the Savoy. Aferwards, a ministerial decree attributed it to the land of the Italian State in 1919. Since 1926 and until 1943 the Palace housed the Italian Military Air Force Academy. On 1943 it was occupied by the Allied Armies. Today the Palace houses the Commission for the Environmental Architectural Artistic and Historical Heritage of Caserta. 17 june caserta