In 1815, Ferdinand IV of Bourbon bought for his wife Lucia Migliaccio, duchess of Floridia, the mansion of the Prince Giuseppe Caracciolo di Torella on the hill of Vomero.

Placido di Sangro lived during the 16th century and worked as an ambassador for Charles V. He was a scholar and got appointed “Prince” of the Academy of Sireni or Sereni attended by distinguished aristocrats of the time.

As a consequence, the family of Eleonora de Fonseca Pimentel, who had escaped from Portugal and Rome, moved to Naples to be free from religious persecution.

The visit of the museum starts from the vestibule, where the visitors can see the paintings of Ferdinand IV of Bourbon and of the Duchess Floridia, and leads them to the other floors through the large side staircase.

Today, the National Museum of ceramics Duca di Martina, with its 6,000 oriental and occidental items on display, hosts one of the biggest collections in Italy of decorative art from the 12th to the 19th century.

In this area, the visitors can see glass from Venice and glaze from Limoges dating back to the 15th and 16th century, artefacts made of leather, caskets, tobacco tins and corals.

The museum is particularly proud to host the most important oriental art collection in Italy, comprising 1,200 items of porcelain, bronze, jade and glaze.