Explorer Naples

Piazza del Plebiscito is a large pedestrian square in central Naples, named after the plebiscite of 21 October 1860 that joined Naples to the Kingdom of Italy. The Royal Palace closes its east side, and the church of San Francesco di Paola with its curved colonnade the west; two equestrian statues of Bourbon kings stand before the church.

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.

San Francesco di Paola is a basilica on the west side of Piazza del Plebiscito, built in 1816–1846 to designs by Pietro Bianchi and modelled on the Pantheon in Rome. A portico of six columns stands before the round church and its 53-metre dome, flanked by the curved colonnade planned under Joachim Murat.

The Teatro di San Carlo is the opera house of Naples, opened in 1737 for King Charles of Bourbon beside the Royal Palace and rebuilt within a year after a fire in 1816. Its horseshoe-shaped auditorium, lined with tiers of boxes, seats 1,386 and hosts an opera season from late November to July and a ballet season from December to June.

The Bourbon Tunnel is an underground passage in Naples begun in the 1850s for King Ferdinand II to link the Royal Palace with the barracks on today's Via Morelli. Never finished, it cuts through older cisterns and quarries; it served as an air-raid shelter in the Second World War, and wrecked cars and motorbikes from a later vehicle pound still lie inside.

Galleria Umberto I is a covered shopping arcade built in 1887–1890 to designs by Emanuele Rocco, across the street from the Teatro di San Carlo. Four wings vaulted in iron and glass meet in a cross under a glass dome 57 metres high, with shops and cafés at street level and apartments on the upper floor.

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.

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 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.

Castel Sant'Elmo is a star-shaped fortress on the Vomero hill above central Naples, built between 1537 and 1547 for the Spanish viceroy Pedro de Toledo on the site of an earlier Angevin castle. Its walls and terraces look out over the city and the bay, and the Museo del Novecento inside shows 20th-century art from Naples.

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.

Gesù Nuovo is a Jesuit church on Piazza del Gesù Nuovo, built in 1584–1601 by Giuseppe Valeriano inside the palace that Roberto Sanseverino, Prince of Salerno, had built in 1470. It kept the palace's façade of grey piperno stone cut into diamond-shaped points; inside are coloured marble chapels and frescoes by Francesco Solimena.

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.

Naples Underground is a guided route that starts in Piazza San Gaetano and descends about 40 metres into tunnels and cisterns dug into the tuff since Greek times, later used as an aqueduct and as air-raid shelters in the Second World War. The visit also includes remains of the Roman theatre of Neapolis inside an old house nearby.

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 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 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.

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.

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.