Aerial Photo of the model farm for the cultivation of grain and breeding of special breeds of horses and cattle.

Carditello Royal Site

The magnificent Carditello Royal Site was built for Ferdinand IV of Bourbon in 1787 for the breeding and selection of royal horses and for agricultural and dairy production.

Carabinieri riding in front of the Royal Site of Carditello for the event "Horses and Knights 29th of October 2016". – © Giovanni Ricci Novara

External Horse racetrack with obelisks and a circular temple with a classic shape. – © Emma Taricco

Decorative detail of Fedele Fischetti's "Henry IV's Apotheosis". – © Emma Taricco

Interior view of the Carditello Royal Sites' Chapel. – © Amedeo Benestante

Aerial Photo of the sober and elegant central architectural complex of neoclassical style and dependencies. – © Emma Taricco

Carabinieri riding in front of the Royal Site of Carditello for the event "Horses and Knights 29th of October 2016". – © Giovanni Ricci Novara

Designed and built for Charles of Bourbon by the Roman architect Francesco Collecini, student of Luigi Vanvitelli, originally as a hunting lodge, the Royal Site is made up of a central building, service buildings and a large elliptical gallop. Ferdinand IV later transformed it into a villa with an estate of 2,070 hectares of cultivated fields, vineyards, and orchards.

The greatest splendor of Carditello was achieved in the years immediately following its completion, when court painter Jacob Philipp Hackert was tasked with decorating and furnishing the royal apartments, including commissioning a ceiling painting celebrating the ascendance of the Bourbon dynasty.

Fresco of the interior hall of the Carditello Royal Site, Fedele Fischetti "Henry IV's Apotheosis". – © Amedeo Benestante

German writer Wolfgang Goethe was enchanted by the pastoral splendor of Carditello and recommended seeing the estate “to understand the meaning of verdure and the cultivation of land….The region is completely flat and the countryside intensively and diligently curated like a flower bed in bloom”.

Visit

Carditello Royal Site

Hours

Extraordinary openings on the weekend

Pricing

Free entry