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Accademia di Belle Arti
Buzzing with brush-clutching art students, this academy was once the convent of San Giovanni Battista delle Monache. Built in the 17th-century, it was given a thorough makeover in 1864 by architect Enrico Alvino, who gave the building a neoclassical facade, grand staircase, and two noble lions to guard the main entrance. The first-floor gallery houses an important collection of mainly 19th-century Neapolitan work.
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Acquedotto
Deep below Naples' royal quarter lies a series of Graeco-Roman tunnels that were once part of the city's aqueduct system. Used as air-raid shelters in WWII, the tufa-rock tunnels run below Via Chiaia.
Guided tours (in Italian) are organised by La Napoli Sotterranea, and depart from Caffè Gambrinus at the times listed above.
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Albergo dei Poveri
Not impartial to a spot of PR, Bourbon king Charles VII built this giant poorhouse at a main city entrance to promote himself as enlightened and compassionate. In the process of a slow restoration, it currently houses 85 families, by now the descendants of needy families housed there after WWII. According to locals, they share the place with a number of luminous ghosts.
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Anfiteatro Flavio
The third-largest amphitheatre in Italy, the Anfiteatro Flavio could hold over 20,000 spectators and was occasionally flooded for mock naval battles. Wanted by Nero and completed by Vespasian (AD 69-79), its best-preserved remains lie under the main arena. Wander among the fallen columns and get your head around the complex mechanics involved in hoisting the caged wild beasts up to their waiting victims through the overhead 'skylights'.
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Basilica di San Giorgio Maggiore
Standing on the site of a pagan temple, the austere Basilica di San Giorgio Maggiore is one of Naples' oldest churches, built by St Severus in the 4th century. Despite a thorough restyling by designaholic Cosimo Fanzago in the mid-17th century, the earthy Palaeo-Christian apse survives. (The right-hand nave of the church was demolished to make way for Via Duomo in the late 19th century.) The third chapel features frescoes by Francesco Solimena.
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Basilica di Santa Chiara
Simple, vast and severe, the bare Gothic interior you see today is not the genuine 14th-century article, but a brilliant recreation. Commissioned by Robert of Anjou, this hulking complex was built to house 200 monks and the Angevin royal family's tombs. Adhering to Gothic principles of the day, which equated height with vicinity to God, the original design met with a mixed reaction. Four centuries later, it was given a luscious baroque makeover.
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Borgo Marinaro
According to legend, this small island of volcanic rock is where the heartbroken siren Partenope washed ashore after failing to seduce Ulysses with her song. It's also where the Greeks first settled the city in the 7th century BC, calling the island Megaris. A humble fishing hub in the 19th and early 20th centuries, Borgo Marinaro is now a lively mix of bars, restaurants and cocktail-sipping night-owls, all in the shadow of the Castel dell'Ovo.
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Cappella e Museo del Monte di Pietà
An imposing 16th-century complex, the Cappella e Museo del Monte di Pietà was originally home to the Pio Monte di Pietà, an organisation set up to issue interest-free loans to impoverished debtors. Ironically, it now houses sumptuous paintings, embroidery and silverware belonging to the Banco di Napoli (Bank of Naples). Most impressive, however, is the perfectly preserved mannerist chapel and its four richly decorated side rooms.
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Cappella Sansevero
For sheer impact, the Cristo Velato (Veiled Christ) sculpture takes some beating. Giuseppe Sanmartino's incredible depiction of Jesus lying covered by a thin sheet is so realistic that it's tempting to try to lift the veil and look at Christ underneath. Similarly lifelike, Francesco Queirolo's Disinganno (Disillusion) shows a man trying to untangle himself from a net, while Pudicizia (Modesty) by Antonio Corradini is a salacious veiled nude.
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Castel Capuano
This Norman castle has been the seat of the city's civil courts since 1540, and the crowd of noisy families, slick lawyers and menacing police around the main entrance is a permanent feature. Built in 1165 by William I to guard the nearby city gate Porta Capuana, it was later enlarged by the King Frederick II and fortified by Charles I of Anjou. The castle is not open to the public.
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Castel Dell'Ovo
According to myth, the Castel dell'Ovo owes its improbable name - Castle of the Egg - to Virgil. The Roman poet was said to have buried an egg on the site where the castle now stands, ominously warning that when the egg breaks the castle (and Naples) will fall. Killjoys prefer to say that the name of the castle is due to its oval shape.
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Castel Nuovo (Maschio Angioino)
Known to locals as the Maschio Angioino and to everyone else as the Castel Nuovo, this imposing 13th-century castle is one of Naples' most striking buildings.
Christened the Castrum Novum (New Castle) to distinguish it from the older Castel dell'Ovo and Castel Capuano, it was erected in three years from 1279. A royal residence, it was a popular hang-out for the leading intellectuals and artists of the day, such as Petrarch, Boccaccio and Giotto.
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Castel Sant'Elmo
It might look strong and mean, but this hulking star-shaped heap has seen little military action. The biggest blow it received came in 1587 when a bolt of lightning hit the castle's stock of gunpowder, killing some 150 people. It has, however, seen plenty of prisoners, as its dungeons were used as a military prison until the 1970s.
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Catacomba di San Gennaro
The oldest and most famous of Naples' ancient catacombs, the Catacomba di San Gennaro date to the 2nd century. Originally they belonged to a noble family, but when San Gennaro's body was interred here in the 5th century they became a hotspot for Christian pilgrims. Naples' bishops were also buried here until the 11th century.
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Centro Musei Scienze Naturali
Housed at the university, this fascinating natural science centre features four museums. The Museo della Mineralogia, one of Italy's most important, features some 30,000 minerals, meteorites and quartz crystals collected from as far afield as Madagascar.
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Certosa di San Martino
The Certosa di San Martino and its Museo Nazionale di San Martino are, in a word, unmissable. Barely 100m from the castle, this former Carthusian monastery houses one of the city's richest collections of Neapolitan art and history, wisely collected by its resident monks. From precious frescoes and sculpture to vintage presepi (nativity scenes) and pumpkin-style carriages, the museum is a crash course in Neapolitan art and soul.
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Chiesa del Gesù Nuovo
The Chiesa del Gesù Nuovo, on the northern side of the piazza, is one of the city's greatest examples of Renaissance architecture. Consecrated by the Jesuits in the 16th century, its diamond-shaped stone facade actually belongs to the 15th-century Palazzo Sanseverino, which was converted to create the church. Legend has it that the carved markings on the piperno (volcanic rock) stones are inversed esoteric symbols which have cursed the building.
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Chiesa del Gesù Vecchio
Baroque cranked up to the max, step inside for sumptuous statues by Cosimo Fanzago and frescoes by Francesco Solimena and Battista Caracciolo. Established in 1570 and completely rebuilt in the 17th century, this is Naples' oldest Jesuit church.
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Chiesa della Pietà dei Turchini
Originally a poorhouse, this modest 16th-century church takes its name from the turchino (deep blue) uniforms the children used to wear. Fashion aside, it's known as a historic conservatory and birthplace of the famous Neapolitan musical group Pietà dei Turchini. One of the conservatory's most famous alumni was the composer Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725).
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Chiesa di Madre di Buon Consiglio
Feel like you've seen this church before? It may be because it's a snack-size replica of Rome's Basilica di San Pietro. But unlike the real thing, this Neapolitan version is still a relative tot. Completed in 1960, it took 40 years to build. Inside you'll find numerous works of art transferred here after the earthquake of 1980. While none are likely to excite art buffs, the mock-Vatican exterior warrants a quick kitsch Polaroid.
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Chiesa di San Domenico Maggiore
Rudely giving its back to the Piazza, this vast Gothic number features a double flight of marble steps leading up to the apse. Completed in 1324 on the orders of Charles I of Anjou, it was built onto the medieval church of San Michele Arcangelo as the royal church of the Angevins.
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Chiesa di San Ferdinando
Squeezed into the northeast corner of Piazza Trieste e Trento is the Chiesa di San Ferdinando, which features ceiling frescoes of the good-living Jesuits and a fine marble tomb by Tito Angelini in which lies Lucia Migliaccio, the Duchessa di Floridia and wife of King Ferdinand I. Designed by Giovan Giacomo di Conforto in the early 17th century, it was modified by Cosimo Fanzago.
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Chiesa di San Francesco di Paola
Undisputed star of Piazza del Plebiscito is the colossal Chiesa di San Francesco di Paola, a later addition to the colonnade of columns that formed the highlight of Joachim Murat's original piazza (1809). A neoclassical copy of the Pantheon in Rome, the church is striking more for its size than any artistic merit; its dome measures 34m in diameter and 53m in height.
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Chiesa di San Paolo Maggiore
Leading up to the entrance of this baroque beauty is a grand double staircase built by Francesco Grimaldi in 1603. Situated on the site of a Roman temple, of which the two columns flanking the entrance are the only visible sign, the church dates to the 8th century but was almost entirely rebuilt at the end of the 16th century. A huge, gold-stuccoed interior features stunning paintings and frescoes tucked away in the sacristy.
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Chiesa di San Pietro Martire
Originally commissioned to help clean up the crime-packed port in the 13th century, this Dominican church and monastery received an elegant cloister by Giovan Francesco di Palma in the 16th century. During the decade of French rule (1806-15) the monks were kicked out and the monastery became a tobacco factory. It remained so until 1978 when the professors of the faculty of Literature and Philosophy at University of Naples moved in.
