Casina Vanvitelliana, Royal hunting lodge in Bacoli, Italy.
Casina Vanvitelliana is a Bourbon hunting lodge on a small island in Lake Fusaro, Bacoli, built in 1782 by Carlo Vanvitelli. Its cream facade rises from the water: a rectangular lower storey with a round-arched loggia on square pillars, topped by an octagonal upper storey with pilaster-framed windows and small round windows. A wooden footbridge with crossed diagonal railings links it to the shore.
From 1752 the Fusaro area became the Bourbon hunting and fishing reserve, and Luigi Vanvitelli began its transformation. After Ferdinand IV took the throne, his son Carlo Vanvitelli completed the work, building the royal hunting lodge in 1782 a short distance from the shore. It later housed guests such as Francis II of Habsburg-Lorraine in May 1819, Rossini and President Luigi Einaudi.
The building takes its name from Luigi Vanvitelli, who began work on the Fusaro area in 1752; his son Carlo completed the lodge in 1782. Inside, the Circular Hall on the lower floor hosted courtly gatherings under the Bourbons, while the upper Hall of Wonders, with wall paintings of the Four Seasons by Jakob Philipp Hackert, was reserved for the royal family. Since 2023 it hosts the FAB! archaeological cinema festival, and in 2024 a public library, the Libreria del Lago, opened here.
The Casina stands on a small island a short distance from the shore of Fusaro Lake and is reached by a wooden footbridge with a crossed diagonal railing. The building has two levels: a lower loggia with round arches on square pillars and an upper octagonal storey with windows on each face. Since 2024 the Libreria del Lago, a public library and media library, has opened there.
The Casina is often mistaken for the Fairy with Turquoise Hair's stilt house in Comencini's 1972 Pinocchio television series. Those exteriors were actually filmed at Lido delle Saline in Tarquinia and Lake Martignano in Lazio, and the series' wooden walkway and house, built only for filming, no longer exist.
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