Museo Civico Gaetano Filangieri

The design and construction of the museum are due to the foresight of Gaetano Filangieri, Prince of Satriano, who in 1881 made a proposal to the City Council to allocate its art collections in what remained of the famous Palazzo Como, rare architectural witness to the Tuscan Renaissance in Naples, moved about 20 meters in order to avert the slaughter as a result of the work of cleansing and align along the route of via Duomo. The fifteenth-century building that remained was the wonderful rustication facade and the side walls, while the reservoir was completely empty and without cover. The offer proved very appealing to the town hall and the possibility of setting up a 'civic' museum was felt by many as so necessary that in 1883 began the rebuilding work and restore fully funded by the Prince that was completed in 1888. The 8 November of that year the museum was open to the public. On 30 September 1943 a team of German saboteurs set fire to the Montesano villa of San Paolo Bel Sito where, to prevent the damage of war, had been hospitalized in the previous year the most valuable works of the museum along with the most precious Archive documents Naples State, then directed by Riccardo Filangieri who simultaneously held the position of director of the museum. The collection of the museum saved about forty paintings and a box containing old weapons.

In 1946, the Superintendent of the Neapolitan galleries, Bruno Molajoli, he appealed to Neapolitans to replenish collections destroyed. In 1948, along with the Museum of San Martino and the Duke of Martina's Museum, the Filangieri was reopened to the public thanks to the generous donations of Filippo Perrone, Mario De Ciccio, Salvatore Romano, the Duchess of Aosta Elena d'Orléans, Umberto II of Savoy and temporary storage of the Capodimonte Museum. The collection, for heterogeneous materials, has more than 3,000 objects, from various sources and dating. Are collected specimens of applied arts (ceramics, porcelain, bisque, ivories, weapons and armor, medals), paintings and sculptures from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, shepherds crib eighteenth and nineteenth century and also a library with 30,000 volumes and an archive with historical documents from the thirteenth to the nineteenth century. The picture gallery collects especially paintings of the Neapolitan seventeenth century, including works by Jusepe de Ribera, Luca Giordano, Andrea Vaccaro, Battistello Caracciolo, Mattia Preti.