It is always us, the ones who take advantage of a beautiful October day to make some interesting discoveries up and down Campania. This time we went to the Sorrentine Peninsula in search of the Royal Palace of Quisisana, to describe which the best thing is to steal the text available on the pompeiisites.org website, as the protection of the artifact falls on the Archaeological Park of Pompeii: The Royal Palace of Quisisana, in Castellammare di Stabia, was built in the 13th century by the Angevin kings as a holiday and health resort, but it was only with the interventions carried out by the Bourbon kings between 1765 and 1790 that the building took on its appearance current. The complex, which reflected the idea of the "hunting and vacation palace", has an L-shaped structure so as to enjoy a splendid view of the gulf on one side and better connected to Castellammare on the other. In the following period, the park was also modernized and enlarged on the models of the English garden with large avenues, stairs, fountains and water features that scenically exploited both the rich vegetation of the slopes of Mount Faito and the water sources. The fame of the Palace was such that it attracted many travelers and foreign personalities to stay in the area and its splendor is evidenced by the watercolors and engravings by Hackert and Dahl as well as by the views of the Posillipo School.
After a few decades of neglect, the building was the subject of a major restoration project at the beginning of 2000, which was completed in 2009 and which has restored its former glory. Today the complex is at the center of a major enhancement project under the direction of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii which aims to make it home to a museum dedicated to the rich Roman villas of Castellammare di Stabia and where the magnificent frescoes and finds currently preserved in the Antiquarium. The building will also host a large deposit that can be visited to let the public enter the "heart" of the museum itself and at the same time to house the new findings of scientific research that have been restarted in the territory. The site is owned by the Municipality of Castellammare di Stabia which manages its use; the protection functions are the responsibility of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii. Today, the Royal Palace is the seat of the Regional Park of the Lattari Mountains and cannot be visited on the upper floors; the reason we went there is the exhibition "From Dark to Light" which exhibits on the first floor the finds from the villas of ancient Stabiae, destroyed such as Pompeii, Herculaneum and Oplonti by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. In the exhibition there are numerous everyday objects and agricultural tools, as well as frescoes, stuccos and various tools found in the villas in the area, such as a chalice krater in alabaster marble, a bronze perfume holder and a marble statuette depicting a shepherd. Particularly noteworthy is a chariot in metal and charred wood, found in 1981 in the rustic area of Villa Arianna and restored in recent years. The exhibition, with free admission, will be open until 31 December 2019, from Monday to Friday, from 8.00 to 15.00. We will see if after 31 December 2019 the great enhancement project mentioned above will start. For the moment we show you some images of the palace and of the exhibition, starting, however, with a classic panorama of the Gulf of Naples seen from Castellammare, with Vesuvius "in reverse":
As for accessibility to the exhibition for those who travel in wheelchairs, there is a lift, not very large, operated by the staff; shame about a small step at the entrance, which however is not a problem for manual wheel chairs. Let's see some pictures of the exhibition, with the finds of the various villas in the Stabiae area, starting with Villa del Carmiano, unearthed in 1963 in the territory of the municipality of Gragnano:
Villa del Petraro, discovered in 1957 in what is now the municipality of Santa Maria la Carità:
Villa Arianna, located on the Varano hill in the territory of Castellammare di Stabia:
Villa San Marco, also located on the Varano hill:
Villa del Pastore, halfway between Villa Arianna and Villa San Marco:
What to tell you? Although limited in quantity, we liked the exhibition very much; what impressed us most, however, was to learn that, while Villa Arianna and Villa San Marco are open to the public, even if practically inaccessible to us (we talked about it in the post on the Vesuvian archaeological area), the other three villas, Villa del Carmiano, Villa del Petraro and Villa del Pastore, were buried again about twenty years ago for protection reasons (!!!). This demonstrates how little priority has been given to cultural heritage in Italy; we hope that the whole Stabiae archaeological area will be enhanced as soon as possible by the project we have mentioned and that the Royal Palace of Quisisana will assume the role of a large exhibition space for all the finds from the Stabiae area.