Explore Ercolano

Herculaneum is the Roman seaside town in today's Ercolano that a pyroclastic flow from Mount Vesuvius buried in AD 79; it was found in 1709 and dug regularly from 1738. The deep deposits carbonised and kept wooden roofs, beds and doors, and the excavated streets show houses with marble and mosaics, baths and the boat sheds where some 300 skeletons were found.

Castel Nuovo, also called the Maschio Angioino, is a medieval castle on Piazza Municipio, first built in 1279 under Charles I of Anjou and rebuilt by Alfonso of Aragon in the 15th century. Five round towers frame a white marble triumphal arch; inside are the Palatine Chapel, the Sala dei Baroni and the civic museum.

The Pio Monte della Misericordia is a charitable institution founded in 1601 by seven Neapolitan noblemen, with an octagonal church and a palace on Via dei Tribunali rebuilt by Francesco Antonio Picchiati from 1658. Caravaggio's Seven Works of Mercy hangs above the high altar, and the picture gallery upstairs shows paintings by Luca Giordano and others.

The Royal Palace of Naples stands on Piazza del Plebiscito and was begun in 1600 to designs by Domenico Fontana as the residence of the Spanish viceroys. From 1734 it was the main residence of the Bourbon kings of Naples; visitors walk through the state apartments, the Museo della Fabbrica on the building's history and the hanging garden above the harbour.

Naples Cathedral is the seat of the Archbishop of Naples, a Gothic church begun under Charles I of Anjou and completed in the early 14th century; its façade was reworked in neo-Gothic style in the late 19th century. Inside are the Chapel of the Treasure of San Gennaro, the early Christian basilica of Santa Restituta and a 4th-century baptistery.

San Lorenzo Maggiore is a Franciscan church begun in the late 13th century at the centre of the ancient Greek and Roman city, with a Gothic apse and an 18th-century facade. Beneath the cloister, excavations show a paved street of Roman Neapolis lined with shops and the market hall, and the museum in the convent covers the history of the site.

The Museum of the Treasure of San Gennaro opened in December 2003 beside Naples Cathedral and shows gifts offered to the city's patron saint over five centuries. The collection includes jewels, silver busts, ex-votos, paintings and an 18th-century gilded litter once used in processions; the saint's Chapel of the Treasure is inside the cathedral next door.

The Monastery of Santa Chiara was founded in 1310 by King Robert of Anjou and Queen Sancha of Majorca beside the Gothic church of Santa Chiara. Its cloister was redesigned by Domenico Antonio Vaccaro in 1739–1742 with pillars and benches covered in painted majolica tiles, and the museum shows Roman baths excavated on the site and an 18th-century nativity scene.

The Lapis Museum is an underground route beneath the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore della Pietrasanta on Via dei Tribunali, run by the Associazione Pietrasanta. Guided visits pass Greek and Roman cisterns refilled with running water since 2021 and a stretch of the old aqueduct used as an air-raid shelter in the Second World War, returning by a lift that climbs 35 metres.

Sant'Anna dei Lombardi is a church and former Olivetan monastery on Piazza Monteoliveto in Naples, founded in 1411 as Santa Maria di Monteoliveto. The visit covers Renaissance chapels with Tuscan sculpture, the sacristy painted by Giorgio Vasari, Guido Mazzoni's terracotta Lamentation over the Dead Christ and the crypt of the abbots.

The Jago Museum occupies the church of Sant'Aspreno ai Crociferi on the edge of the Rione Sanità, where the sculptor Jago worked on several pieces, including his Pietà. The consecrated church shows a changing display of his sculptures, and visits start with a guided tour; the ticket also covers Il Figlio Velato in the nearby Cappella dei Bianchi.

The Aquarium of Naples occupies the ground floor of the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn in the Villa Comunale and opened in January 1874, two years after the zoologist Anton Dohrn founded the research station. Its historic tanks, still fed with seawater through an underground channel, show the marine life of the Gulf of Naples beside newer tanks with a tropical reef.

The Catacombs of San Gaudioso lie beneath the Basilica of Santa Maria della Sanità and grew around the tomb of Gaudiosus, a North African bishop buried here in the 5th century. Early Christian frescoes and mosaics survive, and in the 17th century the Dominicans buried nobles here, setting their skulls into wall paintings of their bodies.

The Catacombs of San Gennaro are early Christian burial grounds dug into the tuff of the Capodimonte hill from the 2nd century, on two levels. They contain the tomb where the remains of Saint Januarius were placed in the 5th century, frescoes from the 2nd to the 10th century and the Basilica of San Gennaro extra moenia. Visits are guided.

Pompeii is the Roman town buried under four to six metres of ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79 and excavated since the mid-18th century. Its archaeological park covers paved streets, the forum, temples, baths, theatres, the amphitheatre and painted houses, along with plaster casts of the victims.