Villa Floridiana

Villa Floridiana is a building of historical and artistic interest in Naples, located in the Vomero district within the park of the same name.

The complex was part of the group of buildings used as royal Bourbon residences in Campania and has hosted the Duca di Martina National Ceramics Museum since 1927.

In June 1815 Ferdinand IV of Bourbon purchased for his morganatic wife Lucia Migliaccio, duchess of Floridia and, previously, widow of Prince Benedetto III Grifeo di Partanna, the estate of Prince Giuseppe Caracciolo di Torella, a large plot on the Vomero hill, where it stood an imposing villa which, in honor of his wife, he called Floridiana.

In the design of this façade, Niccolini combined the use of very different materials and styles: a ground floor built in dark lava stone he contrasted with the two floors above with white stucco finishes.

A neoclassical structure is therefore grafted onto a base part which ends with a simple balustraded attic, surmounted in the center by a sundial inserted between two cornucopias.

The French windows on the second floor have a singular camber inspired by the Ionic capital, just as the capitals of the four pilasters are Ionic which, in correspondence with the central part of the facade, interrupt its flatness.

A pincer staircase divided into two symmetrical ramps extends towards the spectacular marble staircase which represents the symbolic link between the villa and the park.

Map: Villa Floridiana