Caserta and Women’s Rights
Caserta and Women’s Rights
On the hill overlooking the Royal Palace of Caserta stands the village of San Leucio. Here, fascinated by the beauty of the place, the Bourbon dynasty founded in 1776 the Royal Colony of San Leucio, which soon became a global reference point both for the excellence of its silk production and for its groundbreaking social model, built on values that were revolutionary for the age.
The San Leucio community placed women at the center of economic and social innovation, anticipating by more than a century many of the social achievements that would emerge only in the twentieth century.
In 1789, a Statute was enacted to establish the community’s core principles and regulate life within it. The innovative impact of the Leucian Code was extraordinary. San Leucio di Caserta became a prosperous and peaceful place of work, education, and collective life.
This was the site of the first compulsory vocational training school for both women and men.Here, healthcare was for everyone.Here, for the first time in the world, gender equality was established.
In legal, administrative, work-related, social, and family matters, women held the same rights as men.
In the Royal Colony, women were worth exactly as much as men under the law, and marriages could be formed out of affection rather than parental arrangement.
Dowries were abolished by law.
Education was compulsory for all starting at six years old.
Within the San Leucio silk factories, men and women enjoyed equal rights and duties.
Women played a central role in silk manufacturing, receiving the same training and remuneration as men.
This system ensured the economic self-sufficiency of each family and granted women a recognized profession, enhancing the contribution of women to society and the economy.
For this extraordinary history and its far-reaching achievements, UNESCO awarded San Leucio the title of World Heritage Site.
“Caserta – The City of Women” inherits and reinterprets this vision of progress and well-being, becoming a beacon that highlights and elevates female excellence as a fundamental resource for the advancement and welfare of society.
A journey between past and future, where historical lessons intertwine with innovation, paying tribute to the “ladies of silk” women of remarkable strength, capable of following the threads of history and asserting themselves with personality and determination.
UNESCO
World Heritage Site
Royal Site of San Leucio · Royal Palace of Caserta · Vanvitelli Aqueduct
HERitage San Leucio
The section of the festival that returns to the Belvedere every year to discuss rights, work, and the future from a female perspective.