In 1738, King Charles VII of
Naples and
Sicily (later King
Charles III of Spain) decided to build a hunting lodge on the Capodimonte hill. He then decided that he would instead build a grand palace, partly because his existing residence, the
Palace of Portici, was too small to accommodate his court, and partly because he needed somewhere to house the fabulous
Farnese Collection which he had inherited from his mother,
Elisabetta Farnese, last descendant of the sovereign ducal family of
Parma. He commissioned
Angelo Carasale,
Giovanni Antonio Medrano and
Antonio Canevari to build it. However, after Canevari failed to come up with a design for ten months, Medrano began his work. Medrano's design began construction in August 1738, but it was to take more than a century to complete, partly because of the difficulty of transporting
piperno, the volcanic rock used, from the quarries in
Pianura. Since all surviving drawings bear Giovanni Antonio Medrano’s signature, most scholars give him complete credit. Moreover, the façade bears little in common with Canevari’s oeuvre. Its sober articulation adheres more closely to
Herrerian monuments in Spain and the output of the royal military engineer and architect Giovanni Antonio Medrano. Architectural borrowing was never neutral, and at Capodimonte such features harmonized the palace with other royal buildings, thus casting it as a member of a close-knit family of crown structures. The features drawn from Spain would seem to indicate that Medrano oversaw the design. He knew Spanish monuments well, renovated the
Palazzo Reale, and designed the
Teatro di San Carlo. Medrano probably designed the stairs, for their distinctive C-shape resemble the one he designed for the Teatro di San Carlo. In 1758, the first part of the palace was opened and the art collection was brought in. In 1759,
Ferdinand IV succeeded his father Charles and the following year he appointed the architect
Ferdinando Fuga to oversee work on the palace and the grounds. In 1787, on the advice of
Jacob Philipp Hackert, a laboratory for the restoration of paintings was created. When the
Parthenopaean Republic was declared in 1799, Ferdinand fled to Palermo on board
Nelson's
Vanguard, taking the most valuable items from the palace with him. What remained was looted by the French troops of General
Jean Étienne Championnet who were billeted there. During the 9 years of
French occupation (1806-1815), the palace was the residence of
Joseph Bonaparte and then of
Joachim Murat. The art collection was transferred to the
Naples National Archaeological Museum. When Ferdinand returned from Sicily in 1815, he employed many painters and sculptors to work on the decoration of the palace.
Francis I succeeded his father Ferdinand in 1825 and appointed the architect
Antonio Niccolini to oversee work on the palace. Niccolini added monumental staircases, and new suites of rooms for the royal family, continuing work when
Ferdinand II succeeded in 1830. The palace was finally completed in 1840, and a gallery housing contemporary art was added. With
Italian Unification, the royal palace passed in 1861 to the
House of Savoy who used it as a residence and also added to the art collections, appointing
Domenico Morelli as consultant for new acquisitions. They also added an extensive collection of historic firearms and other weapons. In 1866, the
boudoir of
Maria Amalia of Saxony was transferred to Capodimonte from the
Palace of Portici, and in 1877 a Roman era marble floor was brought in from a Roman villa on
Capri. In the early 20th century, the palace became the residence of the
Dukes of Aosta, a cadet branch of the House of Savoy. Then in 1920 it became the property of the Italian state. In 1950 it became a museum with many of the exhibits being returned from the National Museum. == Interior ==