The Museum was opened to the public in December 2003 thanks to a project funded by private companies, European funds, and local institutions, under the high Patronage of the President of the Republic and upon the proposal of the Deputation of the Royal Chapel of the Treasure, one of the oldest institutions in Italy (founded in 1601).
The project curator is the current director Paolo Jorio. Ancient documents, precious objects, silverware, jewels, invaluable paintings, all part of the Treasure of San Gennaro which, over the centuries, kings, Popes, distinguished men or ordinary people have donated in devotion to the Saint, have found and will find in this venue a proper placement and above all allow, in various phases, the arrangement of thematic exhibitions, following a rare and extraordinary logical path.
The current exhibition concerns The Silverware, a unique collection worldwide dating from 1305 to the present day and which, thanks to the work of the Deputation of the Royal Chapel of the Treasure of San Gennaro, has come to us intact, having suffered no plundering (to finance wars) and no thefts. A collection that, apart from a single masterpiece of the Provençal school, is entirely the work of great Neapolitan artisans and testifies to their skill, mastery, and extraordinary capacity handed down through the centuries.
The museum route is accompanied by a sound itinerary that begins, in the first section, with the voices of Naples’ alleyways, highlighting the strong belonging and adherence to the city’s roots, then unfolding into a prayer to San Gennaro in the section where the silver busts of the co-patrons who accompanied the Saint’s procession are exhibited and, in the third section, where the reliquary of the blood donated in 1305 by Charles of Anjou is displayed and which still today carries the ampoules of blood in procession, it is the evocative singing of San Gennaro’s relatives that tells us the miracle of the liquefaction.
On the second floor, visitors access the Sacristies, never opened to the public for four centuries and which today, thanks to the Museum, can be admired in all their extraordinary beauty.
