Museo Nazionale di San Martino

The Museo Nazionale di San Martino is a national museum in Naples, Italy, housed within the former Certosa di San Martino. Opened to the public in 1866, shortly after the unification of Italy, it stands as one of the most important repositories of Neapolitan and southern Italian history and culture. The museum was established through the initiative of the Neapolitan archaeologist Giuseppe Fiorelli with the specific purpose of collecting and preserving evidence of the life of Naples and the southern Kingdoms, from the Kingdom of Naples and the Kingdom of Sicily to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Its location within a former Carthusian monastery on the Vomero hill provides a striking setting that combines historical architecture with panoramic views over the Bay of Naples.

The museum's founding in 1866 followed the suppression of ecclesiastical assets after Italian unification, when the Certosa di San Martino was declared a national monument and included among the suppressed church properties. Giuseppe Fiorelli, a prominent Neapolitan archaeologist, directed that the monastery's rooms be converted into a museum dedicated to the history of Naples and the southern Italian states. The institution developed across two levels, accessed from the two cloisters of the charterhouse. Since December 2014, the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities has managed both the museum and the charterhouse through the Polo museale della Campania, which was restructured in December 2019 to become the Direzione regionale Musei.

The museum's collections span from the fifteenth century to the Risorgimento, encompassing an extraordinarily wide range of materials and disciplines. Its holdings include painting, sculpture, decorative arts, naval history, theatrical design, graphic arts, and the material culture of monastic life. The collection is particularly strong in vedute, or city views, of Naples, with the Collection Alisio representing one of the most remarkable private collections documenting the flourishing of European veduta painting. Begun around 1925 by Maurizio Alisio and his wife Isabella, this collection comprises approximately one hundred paintings, watercolors, and gouaches by local and foreign artists from the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries; it was bequeathed to the Italian state by the Alisio heirs in 2001. The Cabinet of Drawings and Prints holds approximately 16,000 documents, including architectural drawings by Luigi Vanvitelli and Antonio Niccolini, scenographic designs for the Teatro San Carlo, and views by Giacinto Gigante and the Posillipo school.

Among the museum's most significant works is the Tavola Strozzi, a celebrated document of urban development. The Images and Memories section contains major paintings of dramatic historical events, including Carlo Coppola's Uccisione di Giuseppe Carafa (1647), Micco Spadaro's Largo del Mercatello (1656) and Il Rendimento di Grazie (1657), and works by Ascanio Lucini. A dedicated room honors Charles III, King of Naples from 1734 to 1759, and his wife Maria Amalia of Saxony. The Quarto del Priore preserves the Prior's apartment with portraits of priors and Carthusians, stained glass, and painted glass, and features Pietro Bernini's early seventeenth-century sculpture Virgin and Child with Saint John. The decorative arts section holds the monumental Chariot of Apollo (1812), a Capodimonte porcelain Tabacchiera a conchiglie di mare from 1743-1759, and French porcelains decorated in Naples by Raffaele Giovine. The naval section, reopened in May 2008, displays a twenty-four-oar Lancione presented by Naples to King Charles of Bourbon, a Turkish schooner, and the Lancia of King Umberto I and Queen Margherita. The carriage collection includes the Carrozza degli Eletti, the oldest in the city, made between the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, and the Carrozza di Maria Cristina di Savoia, constructed in 1806 for Ferdinand IV of Bourbon.

The museum occupies the former Certosa di San Martino, a Carthusian monastery of exceptional architectural and historical significance situated on the Vomero hill overlooking Naples. The complex is entered through two cloisters that provide access to the museum's two levels. The monastery's adaptation dorsal spaces include the former pharmacy, decorated with fresco cycles by Paolo De Matteis depicting Saint Bruno interceding with the Virgin for ailing humanity (1699). The Fanzaghiano corridor connects the Chiostro dei Procuratori with the Chiostro Grande, leading to spaces such as the former kitchen, now the presepe section. The Quarto del Priore, the Prior's apartment, preserves evidence of monastic life and includes a courtyard where Bernini's sculpture is displayed. The site's elevated position offers commanding views of Naples and its bay, making the architectural experience inseparable from the historical and artistic content of the museum.