Founded in 1872 in the gardens of the Villa Comunale beside the seafront of Naples, the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn is the oldest scientific aquarium in the world and one of the most important marine research institutions in the Mediterranean. The aquarium open to the public is the publicly visible front of a much larger research operation that has shaped marine biology for more than a century and a half. The institution was founded by the German zoologist Anton Dohrn, who believed that the .....

Set on a wooded hill at the northern edge of Naples, the Museo di Capodimonte occupies the grand royal palace begun by the Bourbon king Charles VII in 1738 and is one of the largest art galleries in Italy. The collection brings together paintings, sculpture, decorative arts and works on paper covering more than seven centuries of European art. The palace was built to house the Farnese family collection that Charles VII had inherited from his mother, including some of the most important painting.....

A small but extraordinary baroque oratory tucked beside the Basilica of San Severo fuori le Mura in the Sanita district of Naples, the Cappella dei Bianchi is the meeting chapel of the Confraternity of the Bianchi di Sant Antonio, a lay brotherhood founded in 1621 that bought the chapel from local friars to serve as the burial place of its members. The interior is a richly stuccoed, single-room oratory whose walls and ceiling are densely covered with paintings. Twelve canvases along the side wa.....

Standing at the eastern end of the historic centre of Naples, Castel Capuano is the oldest of the great Neapolitan castles, founded in the twelfth century under William I, the Norman king of Sicily, who needed a fortress to control the routes into the city from the surrounding plain. The squat brick and stone structure has been rebuilt and remodelled many times across the centuries. The castle takes its name from the nearby Porta Capuana, the medieval city gate beside it, which led travellers o.....

Standing on the waterfront facing the Bay of Naples, Castel Nuovo is the great seafront fortress of the city, founded in 1279 by the Angevin king Charles I after he moved his capital to Naples and needed a defensive seat near the harbour. The thickset, five-towered castle has dominated the western edge of the centre for more than seven centuries. The most striking feature of the building is the white marble triumphal arch set between two of the great trachyte stone towers at the entrance. Commi.....

Crowning the Vomero hill high above central Naples, Castel Sant Elmo is the largest of the four castles of the city and offers what many regard as the finest single view of the Bay of Naples and the surrounding region. The current six-pointed star-shaped fortress was built between 1537 and 1547 by the Spanish viceroy as a stronghold dominating the city below. The site has been fortified since at least the tenth century, when a small church and monastic complex stood on the hilltop. The Angevin .....

Buried beneath the basilica of Santa Maria della Sanita in the lively Rione Sanita district of Naples, the Catacombs of San Gaudioso are an early Christian burial complex dating from the late fourth century onwards. They take their name from the African bishop Settimio Celio Gaudioso, who fled to Naples to escape Vandal persecutions and was buried here on his death in 452 AD. The catacombs grew over the following centuries as a popular Christian cemetery, with simple loculi tombs lining the wal.....

Set into the tufa cliffs of the Capodimonte hill above central Naples, the Catacombs of San Gennaro are the most important early Christian burial complex in southern Italy and one of the most spacious and atmospheric in the entire Mediterranean. The site was used for burials from the second century onwards and grew into a major destination of medieval pilgrimage after the body of Saint Januarius was moved here in the fifth century. The catacombs are arranged on two levels carved into the volcan.....

A baroque jewel within the larger Gothic cathedral of Naples, the Royal Chapel of the Treasure of Saint Januarius houses the most venerated relics in the city: two ampoules of dried blood that, since at least the fourteenth century, have been the focus of a recurring miracle in which the blood is said to liquefy at certain moments of the year. The chapel was built in the early seventeenth century to fulfil a public vow taken by the people of Naples during a plague in 1526. The architects France.....

Opened on 9 December 2021 in the restored Casina del Boschetto pavilion in the heart of the Villa Comunale in Naples, the Darwin-Dohrn Museum, abbreviated DaDoM, is the first scientific cultural centre in Italy dedicated exclusively to marine biodiversity and the evolution of life in the oceans. The museum is run by the historic Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, founded in 1872 on the seafront a short walk away. The museum takes its name from the close intellectual friendship between two giants o.....