King Ferdinando I of the Two Sicilies and his wife Maria Carolina

[RomanovsFan4Ever]

I suggest you to visit Sicily, it's a wonderful island, (I particularly like the eastern zone, that is the zone of Messina, Catania and the mount Etna), and it's the Island where King Ferdinando II was born.

By the way, the monument of Messina dedicated to Ferdinando II that I posted was realized by Pietro Tenerani in 1856.

[RomanovsFan4Ever]

Maria Carolina of Austria spent time there in Sicily in 1799 and since 1806 to 1813 (when she returned in Vienna), but I don't know any places where she lived or that she attended...

[RomanovsFan4Ever]

They spent most of the time in Palermo, but I wonder in wich Palace they lived, I should do a little research...

Portrait of Ferdinando I di Borbone (Maria Carolina's husband), if I recall correctly it should be located at the Royal Palace of Naples.

[REMI]

Yes...Most likely she lived with her husband in Sicily.

<a href="http://s293.photobucket.com/albums/mm65/CHARLEMAGNE_2008/?action=view&current=palazzodeinormanni-1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm65/CHARLEMAGNE_2008/palazzodeinormanni-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
Il palazzo dei Normani who lived Maria Carolina


The bedroom of Queen Maria Carolina in the Palace of the Normen


Another photo of the bedroom of Maria Carolina



The chinese palace of King Ferdinand 1st, photo taken by myself

First, King Ferdinand lived in a villa on the seaside in Termini Imerese, between Palermo and Cefalù, on the North coast of Sicily.
Later, he built on the hills of Palermo (I colli) an extravagant villa in the chinese style in the middle of a park of 400 hectares, named Royal estate of "La Favorita". He drove there all day and his slaughter of game is  ended in hundreds pieces!
As Queen Maria Carolina, she lived in the gloomy Palace of the Normen (Palazzo dei Normani)

REMI

[REMI]

The former royal palace of Palermo, named Palazzo dei Normani

REMI

[RomanovsFan4Ever]

Wonderful photos!

Il Palazzo dei Normanni now it's the seat of the Sicilian Regional Assembly, Remi, if you have other photos of internals I'd like to see them, I have seen the Palace just externally.
The Cappella Palatina (that it's part of the palace) it's considered one of the most wonderful monuments of Sicily.

[REMI]

Wonderful photos!

Il Palazzo dei Normanni now it's the seat of the Sicilian Regional Assembly, Remi, if you have other photos of internals I'd like to see them, I have seen the Palace just externally.
The Cappella Palatina (that it's part of the palace) it's considered one of the most wonderful monuments of Sicily.

Unfortunately, I have no other photos of internals. Most of rooms of this palace have been transformed into officces or lounges for members of the Sicilian Regional assembly. Here is a view of Palermo Maria Carolina coud have when she opened her window....
On the left, the Monte Pellegrino, then Massimo Theater. In the middle, the Catheral.




REMI

[RomanovsFan4Ever]

In first moment she didn't liked to live in Naples, once she wrote to her mother Maria Teresa of Habsburg that "she would rather die than live there", the relationship with her husband was cold, it was absolutely not a real love but a combined one, and probably it was the main reason of her initial discontent...in fact, Ferdinando was know for being harsh.

Unfortunately, I have no other photos of internals. Most of rooms of this palace have been transformed into officces or lounges for members of the Sicilian Regional assembly. Here is a view of Palermo Maria Carolina coud have when she opened her window....
On the left, the Monte Pellegrino, then Massimo Theater. In the middle, the Catheral.

Thank you for the photo!

[Eric_Lowe]

But did she enjoy Sicily more than Naples ?

[RomanovsFan4Ever]

I think that she preferred Naples, anyway...Sicily was a refuge for her, the place that she chose for her volontary exile, I think that her interests were primarily for Naples.

[Eric_Lowe]

Well...That would make sense, a palace like Caserta would much more appeal to her vanity.

[RomanovsFan4Ever]

True...and also, Naples and Caserta were the heart of the Reign of the Two Sicilies, and then was there that she could satisfy her political ambitions...she even created the Statuto of San Leucio (Status of St. Leucio), that were a series of laws that emancipated the women, in fact, they provided equal rights between men and women...quite a brilliant maneuver.
But it's also true that in a period of her reign (the period after the outbreak of the French Revolution, and the death of her sister Marie Antoinette) she adopted systems that were repressive against the Jacobins.

[RomanovsFan4Ever]

And the situation worsened when she returned from her exile in Palermo, having regained Naples, was then that she decided to carry out her revenge against the supporters of the republican ideologies.
The list of who would be punished with death was prepared by Maria Carolina herself...it was indeed the most controversial and cruel period of her reign.
Among those who were sentenced to death, there was Eleonora Pimentel Fonseca, a very cultured woman, and friend of Maria Carolina...but, despite her confidential friendship with the Queen, she had a crucial role in the Republican movements...and for this reason sentenced to death.

Maria Carolina was indeed a very intelligent person, and was able to do benevolent actions, but in the same time she was also harsh and vindictive, a person that not easily forgive.

[prinzheinelgirl]

Maria Carolina was indeed a very intelligent person, and was able to do benevolent actions, but in the same time she was also harsh and vindictive, a person that not easily forgive.

RomanovsFan4Ever, it seems you know a lot more about Maria Carolina, much more than me.  This question has always interested me: why was she considered very intelligent? I've read it here and there but never with supporting details. Can you please enlighten me?    Thanks! Also, I'm asking because her brother Joseph called her "our crack-brained" sister to Leopold, and that was way before MC became "unbalanced" because of the French Revolution and its aftermath.  

Wasn't there a palace named Colli in Palermo? I read it somewhere and it said that it served as the home of Maria Carolina.  But according to this thread, she stayed at Il Palazzo dei Normani.

It did not help that she was losing her looks and influence with her husband. She put her trust in the British, but in the end it was them not the French who exiled her...

Didn't she also turn against the British later on, hence her expulsion from Sicily?

[RomanovsFan4Ever]

RomanovsFan4Ever, it seems you know a lot more about Maria Carolina, much more than me.  This question has always interested me: why was she considered very intelligent? I've read it here and there but never with supporting details. Can you please enlighten me?    Thanks! Also, I'm asking because her brother Joseph called her "our crack-brained" sister to Leopold, and that was way before MC became "unbalanced" because of the French Revolution and its aftermath.  

Wasn't there a palace named Colli in Palermo? I read it somewhere and it said that it served as the home of Maria Carolina.  But according to this thread, she stayed at Il Palazzo dei Normani.

Hello!
Actually from what you wrote in the topic specifically about Maria Carolina, I'm quite sure that you know much more than me, I became interested in this historical figure just very recently and so I have still much more to know about her.

As far as I know, Maria Carolina was knew since young age for her surprising intelligence, once I read that she was Maria Teresa (her mother)'s favorite daughter, exactly because her intelligence and her strong temper.
As I mentioned in a previous post, as Queen of the Reign of two Sicilies, she was the author of several important reforms (as the "Statuto of San Leucio"), and as a follower of the "Enlightenment", she initially earned the esteem of intellectuals (and maybe she promoted the birth of the Masonic movement in the Reign, as some suggest).
Well, actually those are still fragmentary informations I guess, but it's all I read about it...

Sincerely I'm not aware of the existence of a Palace named Colli in Palermo...there is the Piana dei Colli, that it's a plain in the northern area of Palermo, I don't know if there is a Palace there.