Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli

Widely regarded as one of the finest archaeological museums in the world, it houses the Farnese sculpture collection, mosaics and frescoes rescued from Pompeii and Herculaneum, and the secret cabinet of erotic Roman art, offering essential context for anyone visiting the nearby ruins.

Planning your visit

This is the museum that makes Pompeii comprehensible. The frescoes, mosaics and bronzes lifted from Pompeii and Herculaneum were brought to Naples rather than left on site, so the ruins give you the architecture and this building gives you everything that filled it — including the Alexander Mosaic, nearly two million tesserae depicting Alexander confronting Darius, and the bronzes from the Villa of the Papyri.

The Farnese Collection adds monumental Roman sculpture inherited by the Bourbons: the Farnese Hercules, and the Farnese Bull, the largest sculptural group to survive from antiquity, carved from a single block.

The Gabinetto Segreto holds the erotic material from Pompeii, locked away from public view for over a century and now openly displayed, which tells you a good deal about both Roman domestic decoration and nineteenth-century anxiety.

Labelling is thin by international standards, which is the main argument for a guide.

Bookable options include two-hour museum tours and four-hour private formats combining the museum with the historic centre. Current availability is shown below.