Belvedere San Leucio: the silk factory

A few steps from the Royal Palace stands the village of San Leucio, a small community known worldwide for its connection with the weaving of silk and similar.
Its history is kept inside the Monumental Complex of Belvedere, now a World Heritage Site. Its existence is testimony to the realization of a dream: the emergence of a real industrial concern whose base vigevano principles of social and economic equality

The monumental complex of San Leucio and intuition of the Bourbons

The monumental complex of San Leucio owes its success to the stubbornness of Ferdinand IV, son of Queen Amalia and Charles III of Bourbon, in 1778 He turned it into a silk factory.

Also known as “Belvedere” the breathtaking countryside views, Vesuvius and Capri, San Leucio became an ideal city in which to give birth to an innovative system of social reforms, with enlightened laws of the mold and to a corporate form linked to the production and processing of silk.

In “Ferdinandopoli” everything revolved around the "Silk Square". The entire chain of processing precious commodity, from cultivation of silkworms the creation of the finished fabric, took place in that place that, in addition to containing the best processing plants, also it included the presence of housing workers, constructed according to the best construction techniques, so much so that some are still inhabited today, as well as several other common spaces, enjoyed by the workers but also all employees of the factory.

Belvedere San Leucio today: the Silk Museum

Nowadays, to visit the Belvedere San Leucio take a trip back in time. Inside the Monumental Complex we are encountered in the Silk Museum, an industrial archeology trail that allows you to retrace the key stages of the silky success of this reality.

In addition to old machinery, frames, manufactured goods, twisters still working, San Leucio is the seat of the royal apartments with its frescoed rooms, the gardens of the Belvedere and the Weaver's House, good example of working habitation.