Diocesan Museum of Naples

The Diocesan Museum of Naples is the museum of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Naples, located within the church of Santa Maria Donnaregina Nuova in the heart of Naples, Italy. Inaugurated on 23 October 2007, it was established to preserve and display ecclesiastical artworks previously housed in the Archepiscopal Palace and from churches throughout the diocese that had been closed, suppressed, or deemed too risky for displaying valuable objects. The museum holds particular significance for the study of Neapolitan Baroque painting, with substantial holdings from the Neapolitan School of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The museum was founded through the initiative of Cardinal-Archbishop Crescenzio Sepe, who spearheaded the project to relocate the diocesan collection from its original home in the Archepiscopal Palace. It opened to the public on 23 October 2007 in newly adapted spaces within Santa Maria Donnaregina Nuova. The move addressed the need to protect artworks from churches that had been closed or suppressed, as well as from active churches where security concerns made display impractical. The Archdiocese of Naples manages the institution, with oversight from the Soprintendenza al polo museale di Napoli.

The collection encompasses paintings, bronzes, reliquaries, vestments, and sculptures drawn from multiple sources across the diocese. Its paintings are predominantly from the Neapolitan School, spanning the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The museum also preserves precious metalwork, religious garments, and objects in wood and stone. Beyond its permanent holdings, the museum incorporates the two Donnaregina churches into its visitor circuit, though Santa Maria Donnaregina Vecchia does not itself display works from the collection. Thematic organization governs the upper-floor galleries, which address subjects including the Passion of Christ, the Seven Sacraments, Martyrdom, the Life of Priests, Monks and Mendicants, and the Seven Works of Pity.

The painting collection features major figures of the Neapolitan Baroque: Luca Giordano, Francesco Solimena, Massimo Stanzione, Aniello Falcone, and Andrea Vaccaro. In sculpture and metalwork, two bronzes by Giovan Domenico Vinaccia stand out, depicting St Candida of Naples and St Maximus, works transferred from Naples Cathedral. The collection also includes significant reliquaries, wooden statues, and stone sculptures.

The museum occupies the church of Santa Maria Donnaregina Nuova, a seventeenth-century building with a single nave and three chapels on each side, decorated with seventeenth-century paintings and frescoes in the vault and upper choirs. The museum spaces lie behind the chancel and on a new mezzanine floor above the side chapels. Santa Maria Donnaregina Nuova belongs to the Ministry of the Interior's Collection of religious buildings. The adjacent Santa Maria Donnaregina Vecchia, a thirteenth-century church owned by the City of Naples, is incorporated into the museum visit. This older church contains the funeral monument to Maria of Hungary by Tino di Camaino, fourteenth-century frescoes in its single chapel, and the largest cycle of fourteenth-century frescoes preserved in Naples in the nuns' choir.

The museum is located in central Naples within the Donnaregina complex. Visitors access the collection through Santa Maria Donnaregina Nuova, where the main galleries are arranged behind the chancel and on the mezzanine level above the nave chapels. The nuns' choir in the Nuova church is also prepared to host temporary exhibitions. The visit includes access to Santa Maria Donnaregina Vecchia, despite that church not displaying collection objects. The museum's official website is http://www.museodiocesanonapoli.com/.