ROYAL PALACE OF CASERTA, Introduction To The Queen's Apartments

As you visit the rooms that were once inhabited by Queen Maria Carolina of Austria, wife of King Ferdinand IV, let me tell you something about the sovereign.

First of all, you should know that when, at the tender age of 16, she was forced to marry the king of Naples, she was not at all enthusiastic and never had a good relationship with her consort. While the sovereign was cultured, intelligent, refined and loved power, which she actively wielded from 1776, Ferdinand spoke mostly dialect, loved hunting, fishing and having fun. He was not very interested in reigning and was rather uncouth. It is even said of him that he loved to eat with his hands!

Visiting the Queen's apartments, you will be able to appreciate the refined beauty she loved to surround herself with, mainly expressed in the rocaille style, with rooms embellished with mirrors, gilded stuccoes, splendid 18th-century furniture and frescoes, mainly related to Greek mythology, all created by the best artists and craftsmen of the time.

The most interesting rooms are the Work Room, the Bathroom and the adjoining Boudoir, a kind of changing room....