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 paintings ever made in Italy. The result is one of the few European royal galleries to remain in its original setting, with the works displayed in the same rooms for which much of the collection was first arranged. The painting collection includes major works by Masaccio, Botticelli, Mantegna, Bellini, Raphael, Parmigianino, Titian, El Greco and Caravaggio, with Titian Danae and Caravaggio Flagellation of Christ among the highlights. The Bourbon collection of Neapolitan painting from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is one of the most comprehensive anywhere. The decorative arts collections are equally impressive, with rooms devoted to porcelain from the Capodimonte factory that was founded on the palace grounds in the 1740s, fine furniture, tapestries, ivories and a remarkable private royal apartment with its inlaid floors, silk wall coverings and ornate carriage hall. A small armoury on the lower floor holds Renaissance weapons and armour. The palace sits in the middle of one hundred and thirty hectares of historic parkland, the Bosco di Capodimonte, with formal avenues, lawns and woods of cork oak that were laid out as royal hunting grounds in the eighteenth century. The park is open free to the public and offers some of the best green space in the city. Reached by bus or by a long uphill walk from central Naples, the museum is more often visited as a half-day excursion than as a quick add-on, and the combination of one of the most important Italian collections with a fine royal palace and a rambling parkland setting makes the journey out from the historic centre well worthwhile.

Type: Tourist Attraction

Address: Via Miano 2, Naples, Italy

Website: https://capodimonte.cultura.gov.it

Opening Date: 07/05/1957