Explorar Nápoles

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.

The National Archaeological Museum of Naples was founded in 1777 in the Palazzo degli Studi, the former seat of the university, and opened in 1816. It holds the Farnese collection of ancient sculpture, including the Farnese Bull, mosaics, frescoes and objects from Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae such as the Alexander Mosaic, an Egyptian collection and the Secret Cabinet.

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 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 Museo di Capodimonte occupies the Palace of Capodimonte, begun in 1738 for King Charles of Bourbon on the hill north of the old town, partly to house the Farnese collection he inherited from his mother. Opened in its present form in 1957, it shows Neapolitan and Italian painting, decorative arts and the royal apartments, inside a large wooded park.

The National Railway Museum of Pietrarsa occupies the Bourbon Pietrarsa works, founded in 1840 by Ferdinand II beside the Naples–Portici line, the first railway in Italy, opened in 1839. More than 55 historic locomotives and carriages stand in the old workshop pavilions by the sea, from a replica of the Bayard engine to electric trains.