La Raccolta, located on the 2nd floor of Palazzo Zapata, is representative of the art known as “19th-century Neapolitan” and has developed over 120 years of social activity of the Circolo Artistico Politecnico, founded in 1888 in the house of Edoardo Dalbono by a group of professional painters and art lovers under the ancient name of “Società degli artisti.”
The institution had as its first president Prince Giuseppe Caravita di Sirignano, to whom the Museum is dedicated. The center was also the site of the first School of Dramatic Art in Naples and the prestigious Neapolitan Chess Academy.
The Museum occupies 1600 sqm and is the result of the donation of the members, who intended to provide the established Association not only with a heritage of support but above all to offer the public a resource that still today manages to be an eyewitness to that century which represents one of the most prosperous periods of the city of Naples.
In the splendid rooms, furnished according to the taste of 19th-century parlors, are preserved pictorial and sculptural works of art that cover the chronological span from the end of the 19th century to the second half of the 20th century, with an artistic heritage of very high value. Here is also preserved a vast book, documentary, and photographic heritage.
