The villa was commissioned by the powerful magnate, nobleman and art collector Ferdinando Vandeneynden, also known as Ferdinand van den Eynde,[1][2][3] from the Carthusian architect Bonaventura Presti.

[4][5] The villa was built at the end of 17th century as an "out of town" palace by the wealthy Flemish merchant and banker (who was awarded the title of Marquis of Castelnuovo and married the noblewoman Olimpia Piccolomini, nephew of Cardinal Celio) Ferdinando Vandeneynden, or Ferdinand van den Eynde, son of the wealthy merchant Jan van den Eynde,[1][6] on the western slope of the Vomero hill, in what is now via Belvedere.

[4][5] The Netherlandish nobleman, whose father had chosen Naples as his residence and the place wherein establishing his own business (like many other powerful Northern European traders), had previously commissioned from a Carthusian monk the renovation of numerous patrician residences in the city (among which the Palazzo Zevallos Stigliano, which had been acquired by his father Jan[7][8][1]); however, Villa Belvedere, which Van den Eynde ordered him to realize from scratch, is perhaps the only work entirely done by this architect-friar, whose name was Bonaventura Presti.

Located at the end of a long tree-lined avenue, with its entrance on the via del Vomero (via Belvedere), the building develops on two levels with a polygonal system with a courtyard closed on three sides, opening into a loggia to the west, in the direction of the hill of Posillipo.

Villa Belvedere was very popular among the Neapolitan upper classes and the local nobles, including the Bourbons; during the summer vacations of queen Maria Carolina of Habsburg-Lorraine, wife of Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies, magnificent parties were held, which attracted huge crowds.

[6][9][5][1] As regards Giordano's paintings in Van de Eynde's collection, included in the dowries of his two daughters, in The Lives of the Artists it is reported: [A]mong these works (by Luca Giordano), noted as in a catalog, I learned that those that belonged to D. Ferdinando Vandeneinden, were then assigned, with the other rich furnishings among the very rich gifts, to two Princes, namely that of Sonnino, whose name is D. Giuliano Colonna Romano, and to that of Belvedere, whose name is D. Carlo Carafa, our Neapolitan, to whom the aforementioned D. Ferdinando married his two beautiful, honest and noble daughters[9]The architecture of the villa, as it appears today, is the result of about five centuries of stratification, with works and adjustments that have followed one another according to taste, both of the architects and the clients involved.

It is possible to discern the progressive arrangement of the whole structure, starting from the entrance on the via del Vomero where an exedra was built (right in front of the ancient portal in peperino) to make it easier for carriages to access.

The loggia is connected to the main floor and acts as an element of mediation between the avenue itself and the access to the building, without interrupting the perspective axis that from the entrance crosses the entire structure as well as the terrace garden.

As mentioned, even today, albeit deeply mutated, the villa still interacts with the scenic view of the gulf, and represents a strong and living memento of Vomero's past.