CASERTA, a city of Naples, in the country of La vora, situated at the bottom of a lofty range of hills, and celebrated chiefly for the magnificent palace erected by Charles III. of Spain, from the designs of Van vitelli.
The palace of Caserta, which is situated in a plain near the site of the ancient Capua, is an oblong square, 787 feet in length, and 616 in width. The two principal fronts contain five stories, with 37 windows each, while the other sides contain five stories, with 27 windows in each. It is divided by intermediate ranges into four courts. in the centre is an open vestibule, with a stair case 60 feet by 90, which leads by double flights into an octagonal saloon, 90 feet in diameter, which is divided by eight marble columns into a circle, and surrounding gallery. On one side is a long row of antechambers, leading into halls of audience, presence chambers, and state bed-rooms, with numbers of cabinets, wardrobes, and waiting rooms. On another side is a range of private apartments, adapted to domestic convenience, and on a third side is the splendid chapel, incrusted with panne]s of yellow marble, and not inferior in size or' decoration to that of Versailles. Antique columns of alabaster support the roof of the theatre, and divide the house into 42 boxes. The gardens, which correspond in magnificence to the palace, are very extensive, and are formed with wide alleys, and with crowded rows of statues.
The aqueduct, which is 27 Italian miles and 218 palms long, conveys the rivulets of the Appcnnines into the reservoirs of Caserta. The aqueduct, properly so called, is two miles long, and consists of three stories of arcades, of which the upper one is divided into arches, while the lower one contains a smaller number. It is paved with calcareous stone from the neighbouring mountains, and the rest of it is built with volcanic tufa. In the con struction or the aqueduct, an ancient tomb was found at the depth of 90 feet. The expense of building the palace and aqueduct amounted to seven millions of crowns. " Caserta," says a modern traveller, who visited it in 1802, " is not yet finished, and probably never will he, though it has been in hand for half a century, as the situation is so flat as to be incapable of modern decora tion, and his present majesty takes more pleasure in the present mansion house of Saint Leucio, where he amuses himself with superintending a manufactory of silks and gauzes." See Spallanzani's Travels ; Swinburne's Tra vels ; Reichard's Guide des Voyageurs, &c. tom. i. p. 478 ; Travels front Paris through Switzerland and Italy, ay a native of Pennsylvania, in 1801 and 1802, letter S3 , and Encyclopedia illethodig ue,.pt. Aqur.DUe. (o)