Top 10 best museums in Naples to visit in 2024

You only need to spend a few hours in Naples to realize that the city itself is like a huge open-air museum. Strolling through the center you will walk on streets that have existed for 2500 years, among monuments of every era and every style. However, Naples is not frozen in time, on the contrary it is a lively place and always open to change.

In fact, in the city you will also find innovation, modernity or even the avant-garde and the best museums in Naples to visit in 2024 are indeed the mirror of all this. Historic buildings transformed over the centuries into temples of art and culture often also become the theater of events and exhibitions capable of arousing interest and curiosity. It's no coincidence that some of them are among the best museums in Italy.

Let's go to know the ones you just shouldn't miss.

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Let's begin our journey to discover the best museums in Naples to visit in 2024 right in the heart of the historic center. It is here that many of the city's major museums are located, many of which are also included in the convenient Museum Card which allows easy access thanks to a digital ticket. Among them there is a beautiful building in Tuscan Renaissance style too, it's Palazzo Como, in via Duomo. In the 19th century the Prince of Satriano wanted to transform it into a museum to house his rich art collection, which still bears his name today.

Inside, there is a vast and heterogeneous collection which includes majolica, armours, sculptures, including nativity statues, a rich library and an archive of ancient documents dating back to the Middle Ages. Many of the paintings are by major Neapolitan seventeenth century's artists, such as Luca Giordano, Mattia Preti and Jusepe de Ribera.
Even the floors, here, are works of art. The one in the Agata Moncata room, in fact, is entirely made of majolica and reproduces the coat of arms of the Filangieri family.

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The royal palace built as a hunting residence by Charles of Bourbon in 1738 is today a large museum that contains almost a thousand years of art history. From the early Middle Ages to the contemporary age, in the large rooms of the museum you can admire absolute masterpieces by artists such as Titian, Masaccio, Goya, Raphael, Caracciolo and Caravaggio, many of which are part of the Farnese collection.

Although some sections are currently closed for restoration, Capodimonte still remains an italian museum not to be missed. If it is one of the best museums in Naples to visit in 2024 it is also thanks to its large park which was born as a hunting reserve, while today it is a green oasis with exotic plants and long avenues for walking.

The park is also home to various secondary buildings, one of which is the Royal Capodimonte Porcelain Factory, which produced such unique and valuable artefacts that they became famous at courts throughout Europe. This refined art is still taught here today.

We are once again in the immediate vicinity of Via Duomo, in Largo Donnaregina where an imposing staircase dominates and leads to a church: Santa Maria Donnaregina. Here begins a beautiful itinerary between Baroque and Gothic.

This large monumental complex, in fact, can ideally be divided into three sections. The new church is one of the most beautiful examples of Neapolitan Baroque, among polychrome marbles, paintings by great artists and a wonderful frescoed ceiling. In the evening concerts or other events dedicated to art are often held here.

The adjacent old Donnaregina, instead, is in fourteenth-century Gothic style, although the church itself is much older. It houses important frescoes and the tomb of Queen Mary of Hungary, created by Tino di Camaino.
Last but not least, the Diocesan Museum connects the two churches. It is a large art gallery where you can admire paintings by famous artists, including Vaccaro, Solimena, Luca Giordano and many others.

A large seventeenth-century palace, restored in the nineteenth century by important architects, including Luigi Vanvitelli, a green garden and large courtyards that serve as exhibition spaces. This is the Royal Palace, a monumental complex that closes Piazza del Plebiscito on one side, and which is also one of the best museums in Naples to visit in 2024.

Worth seeing is the royal apartment, which is accessed via a staircase of great scenic effect and which contains small furnishings, tapestries, paintings, period furniture and so on. The recently restored hanging garden offers spectacular views of the sea, while the so-called Gallery of Time is an exhibition itinerary that traces the twenty-five centuries of history of Naples.

Among the other spaces, also restored in recent times, one of the most interesting is the Caruso Museum, a multimedia area dedicated to the famous tenor Enrico Caruso.

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The Charterhouse of San Martino is a place that will remain in your heart not only as one of the best museums in Naples to visit in 2024, but also for the wonderful views that can be enjoyed from the top of the hill on which it's built. It is located in the immediate vicinity of another important monument, Castel Sant'Elmo, on the top of Vomero. The neighborhood, always lively and animated, here becomes a place of peace and silence.

The Charterhouse, born in the Middle Ages and designed by Tino di Camaino, was transformed in the 17th century into a baroque monument thanks in particular to Cosimo Fanzago, and today it's an important museum itinerary.

On the outside, the square is one of the most beautiful viewpoints in Naples, while inside the church with the rooms connected to it, is already in itself an extraordinarily rich picture gallery. Then there is a beautiful cloister where you can walk and the Gothic underground rooms which form an evocative setting for a sculpture exhibition.
The museum itself includes many sections, from that dedicated to carriages to that of historical maps. Among the most interesting is the section dedicated to the art of the nativity scene, which houses some of the artworks that have made this tradition great.

The hanging gardens, planted with vines, cling to the hillside and overlook the sea. They aren't always open, but they offer spectacular views.

Let's return to the ancient center of Naples, a few minutes from Piazza San Domenico, to discover a museum that is not large in size but in terms of historical and artistic importance. The Sansevero Chapel is among the best museums in Naples to visit in 2024 because it's a treasure chest that contains art and mystery, beauty and science, history and folklore.

Its current appearance is due in particular to a cultured patron passionate about alchemy and art, Raimondo di Sangro prince of Sansevero, who lived in the 17th century. The chapel is actually older and according to popular tradition its creation is linked to miraculous events.

The same was said, for a long time, of the most famous work kept inside, the Veiled Christ, whose perfection gave rise to the suspicion that the author, Giuseppe Sanmartino, had made use of the magical arts. Raimondo di Sangro himself was suspected of having used alchemy to create the anatomical machines, two sculptures which represent in detail the circulatory system of the human body, and which are still preserved in his chapel.

Supernatural aside, this place retains a great charm thanks also to the countless allegories and Masonic symbols that are present inside.

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Not only among the best museums in Naples to visit in 2024, but also one of the most important archaeological museums in the world, especially regarding Greco-Roman art. The MANN is located inside the Palazzo degli Studi, a large monumental building that was modernized in 2012 to offer a better experience to visitors, and also a location for important finds that until then had been excluded from the exhibition.

The museum has mainly three sections, the Roman collection, the Pompeian and the Egyptian one. There's a lot more to see, though, for example the sections dedicated to gems or numismatics. Today this museum generates record numbers of visitors also thanks to temporary exhibitions, events and meetings on archaeology. It's a place more alive than ever, that visitors from all over the world love and treasure.

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