The Royal Palace of Caserta opens the race for a new directorate
Maffei's term is expiring and Russo is acting as interim director pending the appointment of a new director. At stake is the continuity of a model that in recent years has attracted over 130 million in investments and redefined the role of the Reggia in the international museum scene
Key points
The Reggia di Caserta is preparing for the changing of the guard. While waiting for the Ministry of Culture to lift its reservations on the appointment of the new director of the Vanvitellian complex, the leadership of the institute will pass to Alfonsina Russo. The Mic director will take over ad interim as of 5 June, the date on which director Tiziana Maffei's term of office expires. A far from simple succession, especially in light of the wealth of results achieved under the direction of Maffei, in office since 2019. In these seven years the Reggia di Caserta has undergone a profound transformation, which has involved both the recovery and enhancement of the monumental complex and its repositioning in the international cultural system as a laboratory of museum innovation. A path that makes the choice of the new director a junction that goes beyond the normal administrative alternation. It now remains to be seen whether the Ministry intends to continue along the line of innovation traced in recent years or whether a return to more traditional management models is in the offing.
The Royal Palace of Caserta: a European ambition
In 1752 Carlo di Borbone entrusted the architect Luigi Vanvitelli with the design of a new royal residence with the aim of endowing the Bourbon monarchy with a representative device consistent with a broader reorganisation of the government of the territory. With over 130,000 square metres distributed over five floors and four courtyards, a monumental park of 120 hectares and a hydraulic axis over three kilometres long, the Royal Palace of Caserta remains one of the largest monumental complexes in the world. The approximately 1,200 rooms, 1,742 windows, 1,026 fireplaces and 34 staircases convey the scale of a project that still defines the parameters of architectural grandeur today. Added to the complex is the imposing water infrastructure of the Acquedotto Carolino, which the Royal Palace of Caserta administers as an integral part of its monumental system. The route, over 38.5 kilometres long, connects the Fizzo springs in Airola, in the Benevento area, crossing two provinces and six municipalities until it reaches the Royal Palace. The largely underground infrastructure includes the famous monumental bridge of over 500 metres with 86 arches, as well as a network of bridges, towers and conduits connecting the Fizzo springs to the Reggia. Recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997, the Royal Palace of Caserta has gone through alternating phases of splendour and profound decay since its completion. The turning point came in 2014, when the Ministry of Culture granted it scientific, financial, accounting and administrative autonomy under Prime Ministerial Decree no. 171 of 2014. Until then, the complex was marked by significant critical issues, with squatting by families in some structures of the Royal Garden and the phenomenon of selling counterfeit goods inside the Park. Since then, first Mauro Felicori, then ad interim Antonio Lampis in 2018 and, from 2019, Tiziana Maffei, who launched a wide-ranging programme of interventions to return the Reggia to its full public function.
From cost centre to production institution
Decisive in this path has been the consolidation of a management model based, on the one hand, on the ability to manage and intercept external financing, and, on the other, on the experimentation of innovative administrative tools. Between 2019 and 30 April 2026, approximately 130 million euro were committed and paid out, of which more than 113 million were earmarked for investments in restoration, refurbishment, security and valorisation. More than 84% of these resources come from European funds and extraordinary programmes.
The main funding lines include the 2014-2020 Development and Cohesion Fund - Culture and Tourism Stralcio Plan, which has allocated approximately 40 million euro for work on the Royal Palace and Monumental Park, including roofs, facades, historic flats and new spaces for exhibition and reception functions. The PON Culture and Development and the Complementary Operational Programme are responsible for a further EUR 15 million, earmarked for the renovation of the facades, the improvement of the museum's offerings, and the construction of the Gran Galleria as a temporary exhibition space in the premises that were once used as the Air Force's cinema. On the security and technological infrastructure front, the PON Legality 2014-2020 has financed interventions amounting to approximately EUR 7.9 million, dedicated to video surveillance, control, and integrated site management. To these are added the resources of the PNRR, amounting to 25 million euro, for a programme on Sorgenti del Fizzo, Acquedotto Carolino, Parco Reale, Giardino Inglese, Via d'Acqua and Tenuta di San Silvestro. Further interventions concern the renovation, for 3.7 million euro, of the Court Theatre, energy efficiency, the securing of the Royal Palace, and projects on accessibility, digitisation, and valorisation of the storerooms.
In addition to the extraordinary funding and ordinary contributions from the Ministry of Culture for operations, amounting to around 8 million euros in the same period, between 2019 and 2026 the Reggia recorded more than 37 million euros in income from museum activities, of which around 80% is attributable to ticketing. Particularly significant also from an economic point of view is the gradual formation of a stable audience of recurring visitors: in 2025 there will be more than 7,000 subscribers, with an average of 17 accesses per year and an incidence of more than 10% of total admissions.
