Il Royal Palace of Naples was founded as the Palace of the King of Spain Philip III of Habsburg in the year 1600, by the initiative of the viceroy Fernando Ruiz de Castro, Count of Lemos and the vicereine Caterina Zunica e Sandoval.
Its urban placement next to the Old Viceroyal Palace, later demolished, and in the gardens of Castel Nuovo continues the traditional location of the royal residence in Naples at the southern edge of the old city, with the façade facing west, where the large Largo di Palazzo square opens up.
The architect Domenico Fontana designed a civil residence in late Renaissance style with classical columns and ornaments on the façade, a square central courtyard with a ground floor portico and on the first floor an internal loggia on all four sides.
The Royal Apartment includes the Chapel and the Viceroys’ Hall on the east side, the Royal Hall and the Audience Rooms on the square side, and the private apartments facing the sea side. It was decorated by Battistello Caracciolo and Belisario Corenzio with Stories of the House of Spain titled with inscriptions in Spanish. Subsequent Viceroys completed and expanded the building with the hanging garden belvedere and the honor staircase.
When Naples became the capital of an autonomous kingdom under Charles of Bourbon in 1734, the Palace was expanded on the sea side, with the Grand Steward’s Apartment, and then towards Mount Vesuvius with the Apartment for the Royal Princes. Thus, two additional courtyards were formed, in addition to the honor courtyard. The interiors were arranged in late baroque style with precious marbles and celebratory frescoes, among which are works by Francesco De Mura and Domenico Antonio Vaccaro.
The last transformations took place during the time of Ferdinand II of Bourbon, between 1838 and 1858: after a fire broke out in the Queen Mother’s rooms, the architect Gaetano Genovese was commissioned for a general restoration in the neoclassical style.
Headquarters of the Princes of Piedmont after the Unification of Italy, it was handed over to the State Property by Victor Emmanuel III of Savoy in 1919 and largely intended as the National Library, while the oldest wing overlooking the honor courtyard, rich in historical and artistic evidence from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century, is preserved as a museum.
Information about the Royal Palace of Naples
Piazza del Plebiscito, 1 80132 Naples – Phone: 081.58083289/5808325
Tickets Entrance Royal Palace of Naples
- full entrance € 6.00
- reduced entrance € 3.00
available only with ticket pickup at the box office - free entrance
available only with ticket pickup at the box office - reservation fee € 2.00
OTHER REDUCTIONS
- citizens aged between 18 and 24 years of the European community pursuant to law 28.09.1999 n. 275, and subsequent additions through ministerial letters. Below is the list: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Hungary, Swiss Confederation (Switzerland, Norway, Liechtenstein, Iceland).
- teachers of the European community with permanent employment in state schools
FREE
- citizens under 18 years of the European community and non-EU citizens
- Italian teaching staff of permanent schools or with fixed-term contracts upon presentation of appropriate certification issued by educational institutions
- free entrance on the first Sunday of every month.
- tourist guides of the European Union in the exercise of their professional activity;
- tourist interpreters of the European Union in the exercise of their professional activity;
- employees of the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities;
- members of ICOM (International Council of Museums);
- members of ICCROM (International Organization for Conservation of Cultural Heritage);
- groups or parties of students from public and private schools of the European Union upon reservation accompanied by one teacher for every 10 pupils;
- teachers and students of faculties of architecture, cultural heritage conservation, educational sciences and degree courses in literature or literary subjects with archaeological or historical-artistic orientation of universities and academies of fine arts and enrolled in respective schools of advanced studies, specialization and doctoral students in the aforementioned disciplines of all EU member countries. The ticket is issued to students upon presentation of enrollment certificate for the current academic year;
- Socrates and Erasmus students of the aforementioned disciplines;
- art history teachers from high schools;
- students of the following schools: Central Institute for Restoration, Opificio delle Pietre Dure, school for mosaic restoration; – employees of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage;
- journalists registered in the national list and journalists from any other country, in the exercise of their functions and upon presentation of suitable documentation proving their professional activity;
- disabled persons and one of their family members or companions belonging to social-health assistance services;
- operators of volunteer associations that carry out, based on existing agreements stipulated with the ministry, pursuant to art. 112, paragraph 8, of the code, activities for the promotion and dissemination of knowledge of cultural heritage.
How to reach the Royal Palace of Naples
- Bus: ANM R1 stop Via San Carlo
- Bus: ANM R3 stop Via San Carlo
- Bus: ANM C4 stop Piazza Trieste e Trento
Opening hours of the Royal Palace of Naples
From 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. The ticket office closes one hour earlier. Closed on December 25 and January 1.
