Certosa di San Martino

Charles, Duke of Calabria, son of Robert of Anjou, founded the charterhouse in 1325, and it was consecrated in 1368. What you see inside is later. From 1623 to 1656 the architect and sculptor Cosimo Fanzago gave the church its baroque dress: the facade, the inlaid marble of the nave and chapels, and much of the decoration beyond. He left after a bitter dispute with the monks in 1656, and others finished his work.

Look up first. The vault frescoes of the Ascension are by Giovanni Lanfranco, painted between 1636 and 1639. By the main door hang Moses and Elijah by Jusepe de Ribera, and above the door a Pietà by Massimo Stanzione of 1638. The single nave has eight side chapels, and beyond the altar a sequence of sacristy, choir, chapter room and further chapels continues the display.

Before the church you cross the Cortile Monumentale, and from the church you pass into the smaller Chiostro dei Procuratori and the refectory. All of these, with the great cloister and the terrace, open at 8:30 a.m., an hour before the museum rooms, so an early arrival can see the architecture first and then move on to the collections when they open.

The Chiostro Grande was enlarged from 1581 by the Tuscan architect Giovanni Antonio Dosio, with a garden and wellhead at the center over a cistern, and completed by Fanzago. In one corner is the monks' monumental cemetery, which Fanzago also worked on. Along the arcades you can still see the doors of the monks' cells and the hatches through which their food was passed.

Then go out to the Terrazza Belvedere and the gardens, whose terraces look over the old town and the bay. The view is lower and closer than the one from the ramparts of Castel Sant'Elmo above: you look down into the roofs of the Centro Storico rather than across the whole gulf. Remember the gardens close an hour before the museum, so go there first on a late visit.

The Ministry describes San Martino as Italy's most important public collection of the Neapolitan presepe, the nativity-scene craft that peaked in the 18th and 19th centuries. The section sits in the monastery's old kitchens. Its centerpiece is the Cuciniello presepe, a large scene of shepherds, market stalls, travelers and angels set in an artificial grotto, with lighting that cycles from dawn through full day and sunset to night.

If you walked up Via San Gregorio Armeno and wondered what the tradition looked like before the celebrity figures, this is the answer. It is also where the terracotta model for the Veiled Christ by Antonio Corradini is kept, the sketch Sanmartino set aside when he carved the statue in the Cappella Sansevero. Coming at Christmas? Pair it with our Christmas in Naples page.

• The naval section. Three royal barges, including a gilded 24-oar lancia given by the city of Naples to Charles of Bourbon, built in the Naples arsenal in the 1730s, and the white 14-oar barge of Umberto I of Savoy from 1889.
• The theater section. A wooden reconstruction of the stage of the San Carlino, the small popular theater below street level where much of Neapolitan comedy was born, with portraits, posters and masks.
• Ottocento a Napoli. A new permanent section of 12 rooms and about 200 works, opened on December 22, 2025: Capodimonte porcelain, landscape painting from the School of Posillipo, and the realists.
• The Prior's quarters and loggia, with paintings and views over the gardens.

From Morghen, the upper station of the Montesanto and Chiaia funiculars, it is about 720 m to Largo San Martino, 10 minutes on foot. Castel Sant'Elmo is 200 m uphill; the two tickets are separate (€6 and €5), and we found no combined ticket in the Ministry's 2026 listings. Remember that the Certosa is closed all day on Tuesday, while the castle ramparts stay open.

Our Vomero and Pedamentina walk combines the funicular, both sites and the descent on foot. For the neighborhood itself, see the Vomero guide.