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The building contains one of the most important collections of sculptures, paintings, mosaics and bronzes of the world. The history of the building is long and fascinating.
The viceroy duke of Ossuta started its construction on the empty S. Teresa hill in order to build cavalry barracks. Because of insufficient water supply this project failed. The works started again with the viceroy count of Lemos, who assigned the management to the architect Domenico Fontana; the count decided to use it as Studies Palace (1616). Untill 1777 the building was University Seat; Gianbattista Vico thaught here from 1697 to 1701. The birth of the museum of classic antiquities is linked to Charlesoof Bourbon.
In 1738 he decided to build a museum in the capital of his reign; he first thought about Capodimonte hill as the seat for the museum that had to hold the Farnese collection. The king inherited this collection by his mother Elisabetta Farnese.
The treasures of Ercolano, Pompei e Stabia were discovered in the third - fouth decade of Eighteenth century. These tows were covered by Vesuvius eruption in 79 b.C. Charles of Bourbon promoted the excavations that increased the prestige of his reign.
The discover of archeological sites made necessary to locate a building in which collecting the neverending quantity of finds. At the beginning the Palace in Portici was chosen; soon the idea to join in one building the archeological and art materials with the Farnese collections preserved in Capodimonte was accepted.
The building on Santa Teresa hill became officially the new museum thanks to king Ferdinando IV.
From 1780 to 1820 the architects Fuga and Schiantarelli ordered a series of restorations changes. In 1817 the Borgia Collection from Velletri was added; it was a small but important collection of Egyptian antiquities. In 1822 in a solemn cerimony marble and bronze statues wound on chariots pulled by oxen from Portici to the old Studies Palace in the crowd.
In 1860 the museum was acquired by the State.