The Monumental Complex of the Belvedere of San Leucio, was born from the dream of King Ferdinand to create an autonomous community (called precisely Ferdinandopoli).

King Charles of Bourbon, advised by the minister Bernardo Tanucci, thought to train the young people of the place sending them to France to learn the art of weaving, and then work in the royal factories. A community known as the Real Colonia di San Leucio was established in 1778, to a design by the architect Francesco Collecini, based on a special statute of 1789 that established laws and rules valid only for this community. The local workers were immediately joined by French, Genoese, Piedmontese and Messinese craftsmen who settled in San Leucio recalled by the many benefits enjoyed by the workers of the seterie.
The silk workers were in fact given a home inside the colony, and was also provided for the family free training and here the king established the first compulsory school of Italy for women and men that included professional disciplines, and the working hours were 11, while in the rest of Europe there were 14.

The houses were designed keeping in mind all the urban rules of the time, to ensure that they lasted over time (in fact, they are still inhabited) and from the beginning were equipped with running water and toilets. To the women they received a dowry from the king to marry a member of the colony, even if at everyone’s disposal there was a common "charity" chest, where everyone paid a part of their earnings. There was no difference between individuals whatever the work they did, men and women enjoyed total equality in a system that hinged exclusively on meritocracy. Private property was abolished, care for the elderly and the sick was guaranteed, and the value of brotherhood was exalted.
It was a new model of justice and social equity for the nations of the eighteenth century inspired by a form of enlightened socialism.

King Ferdinand IV of Bourbon had very much at heart the colony and planned to enlarge it also for the new industrial needs due to the introduction of silk processing and the manufacture of veils, therefore to build a new city to be called Ferdinandopoli conceived on a circular plan with a radial road system and a square in the center to make it also a royal seat, He did not succeed, but in the neighborhoods annexed to the Belvedere he implemented a code of particularly advanced social laws, inspired by the teaching of Gaetano Filangieri and transformed into laws by Bernardo Tanucci.
Ferdinando IV himself signed in 1789 an extraordinary work that contained the founding principles of the new community of San Leucio: Origin of the population of S. Leucio and its progress to this day by the laws corresponding to the good government of it of Ferdinand IV King of the Sicilies. This code, wanted by his wife Maria Carolina of Habsburg-Lorraine, was published by the Royal Printing House of the Kingdom of Naples in 150 copies. Following the Restoration, the project of the new city was shelved, although it continued to expand industries and buildings, including the Belvedere Palace. The utopian project of King Ferdinand ended with the unification of Italy when everything was incorporated into the state property, but tradition and quality in the production of silk fabrics have remained today.

In the Monumental Complex artistic expressions echo the life of the small industrial village. the testimonies of the presence of the royal family are almost one with those of the various activities of the workers and the silk masters, the school activity, the houses of the teachers and the director.
Walking along the Belvedere, you pass in front of the Trattoria Quarter, which was the only building built for Ferdinandopoli: it housed visitors.
Then you enter the "Royal Colony of San Leucio" through a gate surmounted by an arch surmounted by the royal coat of arms supported by two lions. To the right and left, there are two families of workers' quarters, San Carlo and San Ferdinando, which include thirty-seven housing units. The workers' quarters are connected to the Belvedere palace by a double flight of steps that encloses the royal stables. The two ramps end on Piazzale del Belvedere, in front of the entrance to the church dedicated to San Ferdinando Re, built in the hall of the Belvedere festivals in 1776.
Walk along the building for fifty meters and you arrive at the entrance of the Monumental Complex, from which you can see, at the top right, the long building of the spinning mill that is below the cuculliera, where silkworms were bred.
In the royal apartment, of particular importance, the ceiling frescoes of the dining room by Fedele Fischetti with allegorical scenes of the loves of Bacchus and Ariadne as well as the bathroom of Maria Carolina, with, on the walls, encaustic drawings by Philipp Hackert representing allegorical figures.

It 'a must visit the silk factory , interesting path of industrial archeology, with salt with tools for the production and processing of silk, a large room with perfectly working wooden frames, exhibition of artifacts, the cuculliera and the spinning mill.  Of considerable interest, on the ground floor, the two large torches that were once driven by hydraulic machines, today by engines. The two torcitoi were reconstructed on the old existing designs.
In the western part of the Royal Belvedere Casino there are a series of Italian gardens on different floors and connected by special ladders. Inside there are fountains around which there are fruit trees: pear, apple, lemon, peach, apricot, plum, pomegranate, as well as a citrus garden.