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San LeucioThe suggestive monumental complex of San Leucio was bought by Carlo III of Bourbon (Ferdinand's father) in 1750 with the aim to build game reserves and secondary residences for the Royal Family. Ferdinand IV wanted to create a small residential complex, representing the ideal city (Ferdinandland), where to bring about a social reform, to rival Versailles and the Royal Palace in Madrid. San Leucio is the living example of how the Bourbons built brand-new hamlets to test new autonomous industrial factories. The village's born from a caprice of Ferdinand IV or maybe as fruit of the social Enlightenment utopia. Eight silk industries were built and became a landmark for dozens of people, that created a long tradition for a niche market, which is still alive and flourishing in the area of Caserta. San Leucio brought out officially its manufacturing vocation between 1773 and 1787, when the king fenced in the wood, enlarged the ancient Casino del Belvedere, built the districts of San Ferdinando and San Carlo, and installed the spinning machines to work the silk into the courtyard of Belvedere. The Royal Colony of San Leucio, working veils and stockings,could boast the largest silk and embroidery factory in Italy at the end of the XVIII century. The village set into a natural woodland, with hunting lodges and silk factory, provided with houses for all workers, a church, and offered a life style and conditions much higher than the ones of the rising working class. The complex deserves a special attention because of the rich artistic witnesses interlacing a small industrial city; the ancient traces of the Royal Family merged with common people's life and traditions. If you look at the Belvedere from the centre of Piazza della Seta, you'll clearly perceive the division into 3 levels and the perfect symmetry of the houses as regards to the axis of via Pianelli. Piazza della Seta probably was the centre of Ferdinandland. The Monumental Complex also shows the great building that homed the silk mill, situated just below the "cuculliera", where to rear the silkworms. The main courtyard offers the stunning panorama of the park, the Royal Palace of Caserta and the plain towards Naples, with the Mount Vesuvius in the background, the sea, the wonderful islands and at north, an old statue of Ferdinand IV dresses as a Ancient Roman. On the west-side of the courtyard you'll admire the Royal Apartment, next to the Church and the manufacturing area. You can't miss in July, during the celebration of the patron saint Madonna delle Grazie, the historic procession, where every single member of the community of San Leucio dresses and lives making a dive into the past. The procession consists of different sequences of paintings and in costume walk-ons, that unwind themselves along the journey, accompanied by XVIII century music. Every house, shop and silk factory is open to bring back to life splendid damasks, silk lampas and velvets, a magic symphony of soft and gaudy colours of that silk thread which ties up, in its incredible utopian history, past and future of this lovely village. You might also be interested in reading about the following topics... Unesco World Heritage Sites in Campania, Tourist Attractions in Campania |
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