Description of the attraction
Villa Floridiana is a huge park in the Vomero quarter of Naples, facing the Neapolitan suburbs of Chiaia and Mergellina. The park was founded in 1816, when the ruler of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Ferdinand I Bourbon, acquired land with an 18th century villa, and in 1817-19 the architect Antonio Niccolini rebuilt the existing building in the neoclassic style and redesigned the surrounding his gardens. At the same time, Friedrich Denhardt, director of the local botanical garden, planted oaks, palms, cypresses and a huge number of flowers here. Subsequently, King Ferdinand I presented the villa to his morganatic wife Lucia Migliaccio Partanna, Duchess of Floridia, after whom the entire estate was named. Lucia used the villa as her summer residence. Today, the villa houses the Duca di Martina National Museum of Ceramics.
The Villa Floridiana Park, spread over an area of 8 hectares, is an extraordinary mixture of the characteristic elements of Italian and English gardens. It is an alternation of dense forest groves and winding alleys decorated with pines, stone oaks, plane trees, boxwood and luxurious camellias. The romantic atmosphere is complemented by artificial ruins, statues and neoclassical fountains. And the Teatrino della Verdzura, an original and rare example of garden architecture, deserves special attention.
A must-see is the Duca di Martina Ceramics Museum with one of the finest collections of decorative art in Italy. This collection of almost seven thousand exhibits dating from the 12-19th centuries was collected in the second half of the 19th century and was donated to the people of Naples at the beginning of the 20th century.
