NAPLES: CAPODIMONTE MUSEUM & ROYAL WOOD

The Capodimonte Museum and its Royal Park represent a unique example on the Italian and European scene, with a collection of approximately 47,000 art works ranging from the 13th century to the present day. Like an art history book, all different art schools are showcased.

The Museum is immersed in the Royal Wood, which was declared in 2014 the most beautiful park in Italy. A luscious green area overlooking the city and the Gulf of Naples, the largest urban park in Italy, approximately 134 hectares, boasting over 400 different vegetal species.

Walking along the avenues, designed by Ferdinando Sanfelice, visitors encounter 16 historical buildings, starring residences, pavilions, laboratories, churches, fountains, and statues. Its complex plan integrates the wood with the gardens and cultivated areas. During the 19th century the layout of the park became more organic. Generations of architects, gardeners and botanists (Medrano, Canevari, Sanfelice, Astarita, and more) gave their contribution.

The site is located on the Capodimonte Hill, just north of Naples’ historic center, and was originally established Charles of Bourbon, first king of Naples. Your guide will sketch the interesting figure of Charles, an illuminated sovereign who fell in love with the city and worked hard to embellish it with new architectures (such as Teatro San Felice) and at the same time to give a better life to Neapolitans. Later, he left for Madrid, as he was crowned king of Spain.

The new residence on the Capodimonte hill, founded in 1738, was originally devised to be a hunting lodge, but was then to be intended also for a different purpose: Charles needed room to house the enormous collection inherited from his mother Elisabeth, the last descendant of the powerful Farnese family. Nowadays the Farnese collection is spread on three major venues: the Archaeological Museum, the National Library, and Capodimonte Museum.

The Royal Palace has been a residence for three dynasties: the Bourbons, the French rulers Joseph Bonaparte and Joachim Murat, and the Savoy after the Unification of Italy in 1861.
In the halls, you’ll be surprised by how many world-famous masterpieces of Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque art are present in this not too crowded major European museum.

Major works by Raphael, Michelangelo, Titian, El Greco, Correggio, Parmigianino, and others. To the initial Farnese nucleus are added the collections of Neapolitan art, from the 13th to the 18th century, with works mostly originating from the territory, by Simone Martini, Colantonio, Caravaggio, Ribera, Luca Giordano, Francesco Solimena, and many more.

Other important collections: that of Neapolitan art of the nineteenth century, from the Vedutas of the Posillipo school to the historical realism. Not to be missed, the delightful collection of elaborate Nativities, and the splendid porcelain boudoir of Queen Maria Amalia.

The most sumptuous hall of the Royal residence is a spectacular ballroom with scintillating chandeliers and a marvelous inlaid marble floor, a masterpiece of the Neoclassical style.