Museo di Capodimonte

The Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte occupies the Bourbon palace on Via Miano in the Capodimonte district of Naples, set in a large royal park. Charles of Bourbon ordered the palace in 1738 to display the Farnese art collection he had inherited from his mother, Elisabetta Farnese, and to serve as a hunting lodge. The building was completed over more than a century, and it became a museum in the 20th century. The collections span Renaissance to Baroque painting and beyond. The Farnese gallery on the first floor includes Titian's Danae and his portraits of the Farnese family, Raphael's Portrait of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, Parmigianino's Antea, Masaccio's Crucifixion and Pieter Bruegel the Elder's Parable of the Blind. The Neapolitan gallery on the upper floor shows the city's baroque school, with Caravaggio's Flagellation of Christ, works by Ribera and Luca Giordano, and Artemisia Gentileschi's paintings. The royal apartments preserve Bourbon furnishings, and the Salottino di Porcellana, a room completely clad in porcelain, comes from the palace at Portici. There are also ceramics, arms and armour, drawings and a contemporary art section. The arrangement is chronological and by school, moving through the Farnese collection, the Neapolitan galleries and the historic apartments. The architecture is neoclassical-baroque in scale, with long galleries and large halls. Restoration and reordering in recent decades have improved lighting and display, and the museum continues to rework its galleries. Admission is around EUR 15, and the museum is closed on Wednesday. The surrounding park, once a hunting reserve, offers walking paths and is free to enter, making the whole site a full-day excursion. The Catacombe di San Gennaro are close by.