Capodimonte Park
2 Via Miano
About
Charles Bourbon built his palace in 1734 in a wood where he could indulge in his favorite passion - hunting. To reach the park, take the Via Santa Teresa degli Scalzi, then Corso Amedeo di Savoia and Via Capodimonte, and go up the hill that overlooks Naples' working class neighbourhoods. The vast Capomonte park (110 hectares of woods and English style gardens) is today popular for families, joggers and tourists visiting the museum and art gallery in the palace. The vast open area in front of the palace is beautified by gardens and small palm groves. Behind the palace, you will find the fountain built by King Ferdinand II to commemorate the inauguration of the Serino aqueduct. Not far off, there is the park's second entrance known as Porta Piccola. The most densely wooded area of the park is criss-crossed by avenues that radiate from a small semi-circular piazzetta entered through a heavy, historiated iron gate. The start of each avenue is marked by pairs of statues. If you head down the first, you reach San Gennaro church, built in 1745, and the royal porcelain factory, which today is the seat of a ceramics school. The central avenue crosses all of the wood and ends at the statue of the giant.
