Caserta

Town in Campania, southern Italy, 33 km/21 mi northeast of Naples; population (2001) 75,200. It trades in textiles, chemicals, olive oil, wine, and grain. The base for Garibaldi's campaigns in the 19th century, it was the Allied headquarters in Italy from 1943 to 1945, when the German forces surrendered here to Field Marshal Alexander.

Caserta was only a village until Charles III, king of the Two Sicilies, commissioned Luigi Vanvitelli to build the magnificent royal palace of La Reggia, with a park and artificial waterfall; the residence was constructed between 1752 and 1774. At Caserta Vecchia (Old Caserta), 8 km/5 mi to the northeast, there is a 12th-century cathedral and the ruins of a 9th-century castle.