Certosa di San Martino

Lonely Planet review

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.

Originally built by Charles of Anjou in 1325, the Certosa (charterhouse) has been decorated, adorned and altered over the centuries by some of the greats of Italian art and architecture, most importantly Giovanni Antonio Dosio in the 16th century and baroque master Cosimo Fanzago a century later.

The monastery's church and the rooms that flank it contain a feast of frescoes and paintings by some of Naples' best 17th-century artists.

Adjacent to the church, the elegant Chiostro dei Procuratori is the smaller of the monastery's two cloisters. A grand corridor on the left leads to the larger Chiostro Grande (Great Cloister), considered one of Italy's finest. It's a sublime composition of white Tuscan-Doric porticoes, manicured gardens and marble statues. The sinister skulls mounted on the balustrade were a light-hearted reminder to the monks of their own mortality.