The Italian city of Naples has a number of museums. Two are national museums: the National Archaeological Museum or Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, which holds significant collections of artifacts of the Roman Empire, [1] including objects unearthed at Pompeii and Herculaneum, as well as some artifacts from the Greek and Renaissance periods; [1] the Museo di Capodimonte contains the Galleria Nazionale di Capodimonte, with paintings of the Neapolitan School and from elsewhere in the Italian peninsula.
An incomplete brief list of museums in Naples:
Name | Genre | Date | Description | Image |
---|---|---|---|---|
Museo di Capodimonte | museum, art gallery (painting, sculpture, plastic arts, decorative arts) | first collections started in 1738, expanded 1787 | Found in the Palace of Capodimonte, it is arguably one of the city's most important art galleries and museums in the city of Naples. The first artistic collections go back to 1738, with the Bourbon King Charles VII of Sicily and Naples (who later became Charles III of Spain). As time went on, more and more art was collected, and finally, the gallery is currently a museum, which exhibits classical, Renaissance, Baroque and more modern art, sculptures, porcelain and majolica plates and decorations. | |
National Archaeological Museum | classical (ancient Greek and Roman, mainly) artifacts | 1585, 1750s | Founded in 1585, it is an important archaeological museum, however, was established by Spanish and Neapolitan king Charles III in the mid-18th century. It contains classical sculptures and artifacts mainly collected in the archaeological sites of Pompeii and Herculaneum, which were discovered in the 1750s. | ![]() |
Secret Museum of Naples | private artifacts from Pompeii | 1819, closed in 1849, and re-opened in 1960 | Another museum in the city, it exposes explicit material found in Pompeii. It was closed down in 1849, yet re-opened in 1960. | ? (no available image) |
Certosa di San Martino | medieval and renaissance | Museum since 1866, building finished in 1368 | The museum is located in the former living quarters of the prior and the monks’ cells in the monastery complex Certosa di San Martino (St. Martin's Charterhouse) on the hill of Sant’Elmo on the Vomero. In over 70 halls, it displays exhibits from different eras of Naples’s city history. There are paintings and sculptures from the 13th to the 19th century as well as a folk art section, a marine- and a Vesuvius section, as well as a famous collection of Neapolitan nativity scenes. | |
Zoological Museum of Naples | zoology, animals | 1813 | One of the city's principle museums with zoological collections, it was opened in 1813 by Joachim Murat. Later, the museum was ruined during World War II, yet, was restored from 1948 to 1970. | |
Museo Civico Filangieri | plastic arts, applied arts | 1882 | Created by the prince Gaetano Filangieri the museum collects applied arts made by neapolitan artisans and artists, including paintings, wood sculptures, majolicas, porcelains, glasses, textiles, arms and armors, medals, and presepi (terracotta figurines of shepherds from Nativity Scene). | |
Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Donnaregina | contemporary art | 2007 | was born from a joint project by the Regione Campania, The Italian Ministry of Culture and European Community. It is located in the restored historical palace of Donnaregina and collects masterpieces of contemporary artists such as Andy Warhol, Alberto Burri, Lucio Fontana, Robert Mapplethorpe, Francesco Clemente, Jannis Kounellis, Giulio Paolini, Richard Serra, Jeff Koons, Richard Long, Rebecca Horn, Alfredo Pirucha, Domenico Paladino, Piero Manzoni. | |
Palazzo Arti Napoli | Civic Museum and Exhibit Hall of the City of Naples Events | 2005 | The so-called "PAN" is one of the civic museum of Naples. It is located in the 16th-century Roccella Palace. It was born as a public exhibition center for the civic collections of arts, and to host art and culture events organized by the City of Naples. | |
Città della Scienza | science museum | 1996 | The Museum of Science of Naples, called "Città della Scienza" was created by a consortium of public and private investors called "Fondazione IDIS". It is located in Bagnoli, in one of dismissed areas of steelworks foundry industry. Its original nucleus was built into 19th-century workshops, examples of industrial archeology. It is aimed at transmitting science culture mainly to a public of students and young people, and to testimony examples of sustainable technologies. The old Science centre was burnt in an arson, march 4, 2013. Actually it's composed by Corporea, Planetarium and an area for Sea and Insects. | |
Museo degli Strumenti Astronomici | science museum | 2012 | The Museo degli Strumenti Astronomici of the Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte in Naples is the only national astronomical museum in South-Central Italy. |
The National Archaeological Museum of Naples is an important Italian archaeological museum, particularly for ancient Roman remains. Its collection includes works from Greek, Roman and Renaissance times, and especially Roman artifacts from the nearby Pompeii, Stabiae and Herculaneum sites. From 1816 to 1861, it was known as Real Museo Borbonico.
Museo di Capodimonte is an art museum located in the Palace of Capodimonte, a grand Bourbon palazzo in Naples, Italy. The museum is the prime repository of Neapolitan painting and decorative art, with several important works from other Italian schools of painting, and some important ancient Roman sculptures. It is one of the largest museums in Italy. The museum was inaugurated in 1957.
The Naples Metro is the rapid transit system serving the city of Naples, Italy. The system comprises three underground rapid transit lines.
The Biblioteca nazionale Vittorio Emanuele III is a national library of Italy. It occupies the eastern wing of the 18th-century Palazzo Reale in Naples, at 1 Piazza del Plebiscito, and has entrances from piazza Trieste e Trento. It is funded and organised by the Direzione Generale per i Beni Librari and the Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali.
The Royal Palace of Capodimonte is a large palazzo in Naples, Italy. It was formerly the summer residence and hunting lodge of the Bourbon kings of the Two Sicilies, one of the two royal palaces in Naples. Today, it comprises the National Museum of Capodimonte and the Royal Forest. The palace was constructed on its somewhat cooler hilltop location just outside the city, with urban Naples ultimately expanding around it.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Naples. The Naples area has been inhabited since the Neolithic period. The earliest historical sources in the area were left by the Myceneans in the 2nd millennium BC. During its long history, Naples has been captured, destroyed and attacked many times. The city has seen earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, foreign invasions and revolutions.
The Temples of Paestum is an 1824 painting by Antonie Sminck Pitloo. It shows two of the temples at Paestum, probably during an excavation.
Ptolemy Philadelphus in the Library of Alexandria is an 1813 oil on canvas painting by Vincenzo Camuccini. It is now in the National Museum of Capodimonte in Naples.
Sacrificial Scene is a grisaille tempera on canvas painting by Pontormo, produced around 1520 and now in the National Museum of Capodimonte in Naples. It was probably originally produced as part of the decoration of an interior in honour of Cosimo de' Medici.
Portrait of Maria Luisa of Parma is a portrait of Maria Luisa of Parma, wife of Charles IV of Spain, produced as a pendant painting to a portrait of her husband. Both works were long thought to be a copy after an autograph work by Francisco Goya, but they have now been definitively reattributed as autograph works by Goya himself, produced late in the 18th century. Goya was a court artist to the royal family, though most of his paintings of them are still in the Prado Museum. The two works were commissioned by the couple's daughter Maria Isabella of Spain. They were sent to Maria Isabella and they are both now in the National Museum of Capodimonte in Naples.
Madonna and Child with Donors or Sacred Conversation with Donors is a c. 1525 oil on panel painting by Palma Vecchio, now in the Museo nazionale di Capodimonte in Naples.
Portrait of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese is a c. 1545-1546 oil on canvas three-quarter-length portrait of Alessandro Farnese the Younger (1520-1589) by Titian, now in the Museo nazionale di Capodimonte in Naples.
Madonna of Constantinople is a c. 1656 oil on canvas painting by Mattia Preti. It was the first of many works commissioned as ex-votos for freeing the city from the plague of 1656 – they all showed the Madonna with a selection of the city's patron saints, in this case Joseph, Januarius, Roch, Nicasius and Rosalia (centre). It now hangs in the Museo nazionale di Capodimonte in Naples.
Portrait of Pope Paul III with Camauro is a 1545 – 1546 oil on canvas painting by Titian, now in the Museo nazionale di Capodimonte in Naples.
The Earthly Trinity with Saints and God the Father are a pair of c.1626-c.1635 oil on canvas paintings by Jusepe de Ribera, both now in the Museo nazionale di Capodimonte in Naples. Along with the Holy Family, the main work shows Bruno of Cologne, Benedict of Nursia, Bernardino of Siena and Bonaventure.
Saint John the Baptist is a c.1653-1656 oil on canvas painting by Mattia Preti, now in the Museo nazionale di Capodimonte in Naples.
Saint Nicholas is a c. 1653 painting by Mattia Preti, the first work he produced after moving to Naples and showing the three gold balls which are a traditional attribute of the saint. It is now in the Museo nazionale di Capodimonte in the same city. He also produced a larger version of the work in 1657 which is now in the Pinacoteca civica in Fano, with an early copy after the Capodimonte version now in the church of Santa Teresa degli Scalzi in Naples.
The Banquet of Absalom is an oil on canvas painting by Mattia Preti, created in c. 1660–1665, now in the Museo nazionale di Capodimonte in Naples. It illustrates a passage from chapters 13 and 14 of 2 Samuel in the Old Testament, in which King David's son Absalom avenges the rape of Absalom's sister Tamar two years earlier by inviting her rapist Amnon to a feast, getting him drunk and then killing him.
Belshazzar's Feast is a circa 1660-1665 oil on canvas painting by Mattia Preti, now in the Museo nazionale di Capodimonte in Naples. It shows a scene from chapter 5 of the Book of Daniel.