This private guided tour of roughly 1 h and half with an English-speaking guide in the Capodimonte Gallery will allow you to appreciate some of the world's most famous paintings by Simone Martini, Masaccio, Mantegna, Botticelli, Peter Bruegel the Elder, Parmigianino, Caravaggio ,Titian and many others .
Charles of Bourbon, king of Naples and later Charles III of Spain, set out to purchase the land at Capodimonte in 1734, initially planned to use the palazzo as a hunting lodge and royal residence. By 1755 the king had decided to apportion part of the royal apartments as a library and museum. From 1758 to 1806, the works from the Farnese collection (an immense patrimony that Charles had inherited from his mother, Elisabetta Farnese of Parma) were transported from Farnese estates in Parma and Piacenza and the Palazzo Farnese in Rome. The latter collection had been started by Alessandro Farnese (later Pope Paul III).
Over the centuries the collection was enlarged by various means, and by the turn of the XIX century it included some 1,780 works. For a time the Palazzo of Capodimonte served largely as a residence and the art was transferred elsewhere. The palace was designated as a museum site in 1950, and the large collection, which includes many outstanding Flemish and Italian pieces, was opened to the public in 1957.
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