[8] The area chosen for the new construction was located at the western end of the city, on the hill of Pizzofalcone, in a position that allowed the port to be dominated and that would facilitate an escape route for the king in case of an enemy attack.

[18] Exteriorly, between 1666 and 1671, when Pedro Antonio de Aragón was in power, the most notable addition took place with the construction of a small pavilion facing the sea, the so-called Belvedere, which would serve as a bedroom for the viceroys and later for the Bourbon sovereigns.

[22] The renovation works were directed by the military engineer Giovanni Antonio Medrano, later architect of the Royal Palace of Portici, and initially focused on the king's apartments facing the Piazza della Repubblica.

The palace was then structured around two main rooms or apartments:[23] In general, in this first reform, the works that evoked the history of Naples and its Spanish past were preserved as a sign of historical prestige, while those that referred to the Austrian period were destroyed.

[26] During the minority of Ferdinand IV, from 1759 to 1767, it is worth highlighting the progressive extension of the palace towards the east (towards the Castel Nuovo), with the construction, around 1760, of the eastern wing that ran parallel to the so-called "Steward's Apartment" facing the sea and the hanging gardens systematized around 1740.

However, the most notable reform, coinciding with the end of the minority and the marriage of the King to the Archduchess Maria Carolina of Austria in May 1768, was the transformation of the Spanish-era "Grand Hall" into a late-baroque court theatre by Ferdinando Fuga.

On the one hand, the Royal Chapel, to which Joseph Bonaparte had already added the sumptuous altar of pietra dura from Santa Maria degli Scalzi, was remodelled in Byzantine style and inaugurated in 1814; although it would be rebuilt after the fire of 1837 and destroyed during the Second World War.

[40] However, it is also worth highlighting some specific interventions in the palace, such as the sumptuous neo-baroque furniture in the First Antechamber, carried out between 1862 and 1864; the coats of arms of the provinces of the new Kingdom of Italy painted in the Hall of Hercules around 1868 or the marouflage of the Assumption by Domenico Morelli made for the Royal Chapel in 1869.

[53] In the centre of the main façade is the entrance portal, flanked by two coupled granite columns, and crowned with the coat of arms of Philip III of Spain, already planned by Fontana to emphasise the public function of the palace.

[65] From the Belvedere Courtyard, you can access different areas of the palace: on the left is the Guest Staircase, which leads to the Vestibule (room XX) of the Royal Apartment and to the small bridge, destroyed in the bombings of the Second World War and rebuilt on the same supports, which links it directly to the hanging gardens.

[74] For its part, the cloister vault that covers it is decorated with white stuccos on a gray background, representing garlands and the shields of the Kingdom of Naples, of the Sicily, of Basilicata, of Calabria and, although it was added later, of the House of Savoy.

[88] The walls are decorated with a series of tapestries of Neapolitan manufacture, including the Rape of Proserpina by Pietro Duranti, made in 1762 from a preparatory cartoon by Girolamo Starace Franchis, which was recommended by Luigi Vanvitelli.

In the center of the room is a wooden altar from the 19th century and behind it the silver-plated copper sarcophagus of Maria Christina of Savoy, who died in 1836 giving birth to the future Francis II, was buried in the basilica of Santa Chiara and later beatified.

[80] With the renovations of the mid-19th century it was converted into a reception area and in 1840 Gennaro Maldarelli painted on the ceiling Tancred returns Constance to the Emperor Arrigo VI following a neo-Gothic aesthetic with references to the ancient history of Sicily.

[103] Among the furniture ornaments are a 1730 clock by Charles Clay, with a mechanical barrel organ inside capable of producing ten different tones; and a jardinière table with views of Russian residences and a birdcage made by the Popov factory in Gorbunovo in Moscow, which was given to Ferdinand II during Tsar Nicholas I's trip to Naples in 1846.

[note 6] The furniture includes stools with crossed swords from the Murat period, a Bailly clock from 1812 with a Thomire sculpture depicting Meditation, and on a console, a wax bust of Queen Maria Carolina of Austria.

[108] On the walls there are paintings from the Neapolitan school from the 17th and 18th century, including Orpheus and the Bacchantes and The Meeting of Rachel and Jacob, by Andrea Vaccaro, and two canvases by Luca Giordano from the church of Santa Maria del Pianto.

The Neapolitan Empire style furniture dates from 1840 to 1841, the clock with carillon is English from the 18th century, while the table top is of hard stone, made by the Opificio delle pietre dure of Florence and given by Leopold II of Tuscany to Francis I.

The Empire furniture dates from 1840, as does the fireplace, which reproduces the mosaic of the battle between Darius and Alexander the Great in the House of the Faun at Pompeii; in the centre of the room is a marble and soft stone table by Giovanni Battista Calì with a depiction of Naples seen from the sea and Ferdinand II in military uniform.

[111] The Second Antechamber of the Queen (room XVIII) has a white and gold stucco ceiling from the Genovese reform under Ferdinand II, while the furniture is from the reign of Joachim Murat, of Neapolitan manufacture, and the Chinese vase is from the 18th century.

[116][117] The Hall of Hercules (Room XXII) did not exist in the original project by Domenico Fontana, being added from 1648 by the viceroy Iñigo Vélez de Guevara and inaugurated in 1652 on the occasion of the celebrations for the end of the Reapers' War.

[118] Under the reign of Murat, between 1807 and 1809, the architect Antonio De Simone completely redecorated the space, removing the portraits and turning it into an antiquarium with plaster casts from the collection of antiquities such as the Farnese Hercules, from which it took its name.

[119] The room is also decorated with a French carpet from the second half of the 17th century made by the Savonnerie Manufactory for the Louvre and later brought to Naples by Murat; Boulle clock with marquetry, decorated with an Atlante holding the globe, by Isaac Thuret; a green Sèvres porcelain vase with a vignette depicting Homer among the potters of Samos by Antoine Béranger, donated to Francis I in 1830;[120] and two "extra-large" neo-Rocaille vases of Limoges from 1847, from the Ballroom in the east wing and painted in Naples by Raffaele Giovine with scenes illustrating the abdication of Charles, Bourbon in favour of Ferdinand IV in 1759.

[132] The first major transformation of the chapel took place during the reign of Joachim Murat, who considered that the space was neither luxurious enough nor in keeping with French ceremonial standards, which required the sovereign to attend mass on a platform in front of the altar and not in a canopy next to the gospel, as had been customary with Spanish etiquette.

[135] The new chapel was completed with paintings of saints "alla maniera antica" located below the entablature by Gennaro Bisogni (preserved only in the apse)[136] and a sumptuous altar of Hard stones from the Church of Santa Teresa degli Scalzi, whose religious community had been suppressed in 1808 by Joseph Bonaparte.

[138] Its appearance was profoundly altered by the post-war reconstruction, which chose to eliminate much of the 19th-century decoration that had survived the conflict to recreate an arbitrary and decontextualized version of the chapel in the 17th century, rebuilding the Corinthian pilasters above Bisogni's paintings of saints.

[28] Later, with the return of the Bourbons, it was the apartment of Francis I (as Duke of Calabria and as king) and his family, from 1830 to 1837 it was occupied by his widow the queen mother Maria Isabella of Spain, and it was in her chambers that the devastating fire of February 1837 broke out.

[148] Some of these texts bear the signature of prominent artists of the Italian scene such as Saint Thomas Aquinas, Torquato Tasso, Giacomo Leopardi, Salvator Rosa, Luigi Vanvitelli and Giambattista Vico.

The garden has flowerbeds designed with whimsical and sinuous shapes; among the plants it houses are some local species and others exotic, such as Ficus macrophylla, Strelitzia nicolai, Persea indica, Pinus canariensis, Magnolia grandiflora, Jacaranda mimosifolia and Cycas revoluta.

On either side of this gate are two bronze palafreneros, the work of Peter Jakob Clodt von Jürgensburg, copies of those made in Saint Petersburg, a gift from Tsar Nicholas I in memory of his stay in Naples in 1845, as recalled by a plaque.