The precise date of the construction of the Kingdom of Quisisana is still shrouded in mystery: certainly in 1268 the house of King Charles I of Anjou already existed on the hill of Quisisana, but since the Angevins had conquered the Kingdom of Naples only two years earlier it is conceivable that it can be traced back to the Swabians. In a dominant position over the city, the palace is made up of three buildings: the first, on two levels, is the one that allows access to the structure through a large portal. The first floor was the noble floor that overlooked directly inside the park. The second body is located perpendicular to the entrance, on the edge of the hill, also on two levels with the addition of the attic. Finally, the third part descends along the slope of the hill and is characterized by the presence of a porch. Inside the palace there is an Italian garden.

La data precisa della costruzione della Reggia di Quisisana è ancora tutt’oggi avvolta nel mistero: sicuramente nel 1268 già esisteva sulla collina di Quisisana la casa di re Carlo I d’Angiò, ma poiché gli Angioini avevano conquistato il Regno di Napoli solo due anni prima è ipotizzabile che possa risalire agli Svevi. In posizione dominante sulla città, la reggia è formata da tre corpi di fabbrica: il primo, su due livelli, è quello che permette l’accesso alla struttura tramite un ampio portale. Il primo piano era il piano nobile che si affacciava direttamente all’interno del parco. Il secondo corpo è ubicato perpendicolarmente rispetto all’ingresso, sul ciglio della collina, anch’esso su due livelli con l’aggiunta del sottotetto. Infine la terza parte scende lungo il pendio della collina ed è caratterizzata dalla presenza di un portico. All’interno della reggia è presente un giardino all’italiana.

Nel corso della sua storia numerosi personalità abitarono la reggia da Giuseppe Bonaparte a Gioacchino Murat ai Borbone: anche Carolina Bonaparte, sorella di Napoleone, vi soggiornò a lungo. Con l’unità d’Italia, la tenuta passò tra i Beni Riservati della Corona di Casa Savoia, trasferita poi al demanio dello Stato. Nel 1879 fu acquistata dal comune e data in concessione lo stesso anno a privati che la trasformarono in un albergo, chiamato Royal Hotel Quisisana. Alla fine degli anni sessanta, dopo che per brevissimo periodo fu adibita ad ospedale, la reggia venne abbandonata. Gravi danni si aggiunsero a quelli causati dall’incuria e da infiltrazioni d’acqua, a seguito del Terremoto dell’Irpinia del 1980, provocando il crollo parziale di alcune mura, solai e scale: intanto ornamenti e stucchi vanno completamente persi. Ridotto a uno stato di rudere, dopo una serie accurata di studi iniziano i lavori di restauro che terminano nel 2008. La reggia è in parte utilizzata per la scuola di restauro, in parte adibita a museo per l’esposizione dei reperti provenienti dagli scavi di Stabiae.

Today's Castellammare di Stabia was one of the favourite destinations of the Roman patricians, so much so that its territory was dotted with numerous residential villas. Discovered in 1749 by the Bourbon excavators, Stabiae, from the beginning, distinguished itself as a place of excellence: the exploration of the city, however, lasted only a few years, so much so that already in 1782 all the excavation activities were moved to Pompeii, so that villas, houses and streets returned underground while frescos, statues and precious furnishings were collected in the Bourbon Museum. After the abandonment, in 1800, there were various findings that kept the memory of Stabiae burning: but it was only in 1950 that two villas, Villa San Marco and Villa Arianna, were partially brought to light by the principal Libero D'Orsi. The two villas can be visited every day and you can appreciate the design skills of the Roman architects who realised them with daring technical solutions and perfectly inserting the villas into the landscape. Today the Stabiae site is at the centre of a major international project that involves the creation of an archeological park together with the University of Maryland, through the Restoring Ancient Stabiae foundation: one of the fundamental steps of the foundation, together with the Archeological Superintendence of Pompeii, was an exhibition, called Otium Ludens, from December 2007 to March 2008, at the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, which collected about 200 finds among furnishings and frescoes from Stabiae. This exhibition will continue in other parts of the world in the future.

The Grotta di San Biagio is an ancient Christian temple, carved in the rock of tuff on the slopes of the hill of Varano: most likely originally it was a quarry created by the ancient Romans to build their villas by extracting tuff blocks. In the beginning there was a Roman temple dedicated to Mithras, while in the first centuries of Christianity it became a catacomb. It was only from the sixth century that it became a church, dedicated to the Saints Jason and Mauro, seat of a Benedictine community, dependent on the monastery of San Renato in Sorrento. Inside there are frescos of considerable proportions, beautifully preserved, executed between the sixth and fourteenth centuries: the cave is closed to the public. Inside it was found a statue depicting perhaps San Biagio that is now preserved at the Diocesan Museum of Castellammare di Stabia.