Visit Capodimonte Royal Palace and museum

Within the great Capodimonte Park there are the Real Bosco (Royal Forest) and the Capodimonte Royal Palace, that houses the Capodimonte National Museum.

This park is the ideal place to spend a nice day surrounded by nature and by the history of Naples.

To reach the Capodimonte Park that is in via Miano 4 on the hill of the same name, you have to take the L1 underground train and get off at piazza Dante, then take the C63 bus that stops at Museo Porta Grande, the main entrance to the park.

Alternatively, you can take the 3M line bus leaving from the MANN (Museum) that stops at the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte.

The Capodimonte Park was built in 1743 by the architect Sanfelice as requested by Carlo III of Spain that wanted a hunting area of his own.

Then the Bourbons modified the park, adding an English garden, and, after that, the Savoys created the museum.

Nowadays the park is 124 hectares wide; there are three doors to the Real bosco: the Porta di Mezzo (Middle Door), the main one, a Neapolitan rococo style wrought iron door; the porta di Miano (Miano’s door) and the porta di Santa Maria dei Monti (the door of Saint Mary from the Mounts).

The Capodimonte Real Bosco offers wide green areas with more than 400 types of centuries-old trees, citrus groves, statues and several buildings such as the Casino dei Principi (Princes Casino), the Real fabbrica di porcellana (Porcelain Factory), the chiesa di San Gennaro (San Gennaro Church), the neo-Gothic style eremo dei Cappuccini (hermitage of the Capuchins), the Casino della Regina (Queen Casino) and the fabbricato Cataneo (Cataneo building).

The park is divided in four areas: the panoramic garden with its Belvedere fountain, theanglo-chinese garden, the Late Baroque garden, the bucolic panoramic garden.

Going through the Porta Grande you enter the Capodimonte Royal palace, a manor built in 1738 as requested by the Bourbons. Nowadays, the three-storey manor is the Capodimonte National Museum.

On the first floor there are the Bourbon rooms and the French ones as well, all of them belonging to the Royal Apartment complex, that recalls the events of the Bourbon monarchs, of the French ones and of the D’Aosta dukes. On the first floor there is the Farnese Collection, the very nucleus of the manor; whereas on the mezzanine floor there are the Mele Collection and the Paintings and Prints Cabinet.

On the second floor there are the Neapolitan Gallery and the Contemporary art collection, whereas on the third floor there are the Nineteenth Century Gallery and the photography area.

Next to the Manor, in the square named Tondo di Capodimonte, there are the Princess Iolanda of Savoy’s Gardens.